Download The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Vol 6

The History of The Decline
and Fall of the Roman
Empire
Volume 6
by Edward Gibbon
Styled by LimpidSoft
Contents
Chapter LIX
1
Part I . . . . . . . . 2
Part II . . . . . . . . 20
Part III . . . . . . . 37
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240
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263
276
Chapter LX
56
Part I . . . . . . . . 57
Part II . . . . . . . . 77
Part III . . . . . . . 95
Chapter LXV
Part I . . . . . . . .
Part II . . . . . . . .
Part III . . . . . . .
289
290
307
322
Chapter LXI
Part I . .
Part II . .
Part III .
Part IV .
341
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355
369
384
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114
115
129
143
153
Chapter LXVI
Part I . . .
Part II . . .
Part III . .
Part IV . .
Chapter LXII
Part I . . . . . . . .
Part II . . . . . . . .
Part III . . . . . . .
165
166
182
196
Chapter LXVII
401
Part I . . . . . . . . 402
Part II . . . . . . . . 418
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Chapter LXVIII
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Part II . . . .
Part III . . .
Part IV . . .
Chapter LXIII
205
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Part II . . . . . . . . 221
Chapter LXIV
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239
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434
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461
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Chapter LXIX
Part I . . .
Part II . . .
Part III . .
Part IV . .
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493
494
509
519
535
Part II . . . . . . . . 561
Part III . . . . . . . 574
Part IV . . . . . . . 591
Chapter LXXI
605
Part I . . . . . . . . 606
Part II . . . . . . . . 625
Chapter LXX
547
Part I . . . . . . . . 548
ii
The present document was derived from text provided by Project Gutenberg (document 895) which
was made available free of charge. This document
is also free of charge.
iii
Chapter LIX
T HE C RUSADES
Part I
Preservation Of The Greek Empire.–
Numbers, Passage, And Event,
Of The Second And Third Crusades.–
St. Bernard.–
Reign Of Saladin In Egypt And Syria.–
His Conquest Of Jerusalem.–
Naval Crusades.–
Richard The First Of England.–
Pope Innocent The Third;
And The Fourth And Fifth Crusades.–
The Emperor Frederic The Second.–
Louis The Ninth Of France;
And The Two Last Crusades.–
Expulsion Of The Latins Or Franks
By The Mamelukes.
a style less grave than that of history, I should perI haps
compare the emperor Alexius to the jackal, who
N
1
is said to follow the steps, and to devour the leavings, of
the lion. Whatever had been his fears and toils in the passage of the first crusade, they were amply recompensed by
the subsequent benefits which he derived from the exploits
of the Franks. His dexterity and vigilance secured their
first conquest of Nice; and from this threatening station the
Turks were compelled to evacuate the neighborhood of Constantinople. While the crusaders, with blind valor, advanced
into the midland countries of Asia, the crafty Greek improved
the favorable occasion when the emirs of the sea-coast were
1 Anna Comnena relates her father’s conquests in Asia Minor Alexiad, l xi
p 321–325, l xiv p 419; his Cilician war against Tancred and Bohemond, p 328–
324; the war of Epirus, with tedious prolixity, l xii xiii p 345–406; the death of
Bohemond, l xiv p 419.
2
CHAPTER LIX
PART I
recalled to the standard of the sultan. The Turks were driven
from the Isles of Rhodes and Chios: the cities of Ephesus
and Smyrna, of Sardes, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, were restored to the empire, which Alexius enlarged from the Hellespont to the banks of the Mæander, and the rocky shores of
Pamphylia. The churches resumed their splendor: the towns
were rebuilt and fortified; and the desert country was peopled with colonies of Christians, who were gently removed
from the more distant and dangerous frontier. In these paternal cares, we may forgive Alexius, if he forgot the deliverance of the holy sepulchre; but, by the Latins, he was stigmatized with the foul reproach of treason and desertion. They
had sworn fidelity and obedience to his throne; but he had
promised to assist their enterprise in person, or, at least, with
his troops and treasures: his base retreat dissolved their obligations; and the sword, which had been the instrument of
their victory, was the pledge and title of their just independence. It does not appear that the emperor attempted to revive his obsolete claims over the kingdom of Jerusalem;2 but
the borders of Cilicia and Syria were more recent in his possession, and more accessible to his arms. The great army of
the crusaders was annihilated or dispersed; the principality
of Antioch was left without a head, by the surprise and captivity of Bohemond; his ransom had oppressed him with a
heavy debt; and his Norman followers were insufficient to
repel the hostilities of the Greeks and Turks. In this distress,
Bohemond embraced a magnanimous resolution, of leaving
the defence of Antioch to his kinsman, the faithful Tancred;
of arming the West against the Byzantine empire; and of executing the design which he inherited from the lessons and
example of his father Guiscard. His embarkation was clandestine: and, if we may credit a tale of the princess Anne, he
2 The kings of Jerusalem submitted, however, to a nominal dependence, and
in the dates of their inscriptions, (one is still legible in the church of Bethlem,)
they respectfully placed before their own the name of the reigning emperor,
(Ducange, Dissertations sur Joinville xxvii p 319).
3
CHAPTER LIX
PART I
passed the hostile sea closely secreted in a coffin.3 But his reception in France was dignified by the public applause, and
his marriage with the king’s daughter: his return was glorious, since the bravest spirits of the age enlisted under his
veteran command; and he repassed the Adriatic at the head
of five thousand horse and forty thousand foot, assembled
from the most remote climates of Europe.4 The strength of
Durazzo, and prudence of Alexius, the progress of famine
and approach of winter, eluded his ambitious hopes; and
the venal confederates were seduced from his standard. A
treaty of peace5 suspended the fears of the Greeks; and they
were finally delivered by the death of an adversary, whom
neither oaths could bind, nor dangers could appal, nor prosperity could satiate. His children succeeded to the principality of Antioch; but the boundaries were strictly defined, the
homage was clearly stipulated, and the cities of Tarsus and
Malmistra were restored to the Byzantine emperors. Of the
coast of Anatolia, they possessed the entire circuit from Trebizond to the Syrian gates. The Seljukian dynasty of Roum6
was separated on all sides from the sea and their Mussulman
brethren; the power of the sultan was shaken by the victo3 Anna Comnena adds, that, to complete the imitation, he was shut up with
a dead cock; and condescends to wonder how the Barbarian could endure the
confinement and putrefaction This absurd tale is unknown to the Latins (The
Greek writers, in general, Zonaras, p 2, 303, and Glycas, p 334 agree in this
story with the princess Anne, except in the absurd addition of the dead cock
Ducange has already quoted some instances where a similar stratagem had
been adopted by Norman princes On this authority Wilken inclines to believe
the fact Appendix to vol ii p 14) –M.
4 ‘Apo QulhV in the Byzantine geography, must mean England; yet we are
more credibly informed, that our Henry I would not suffer him to levy any
troops in his kingdom, (Ducange, Not ad Alexiad p 41).
5 The copy of the treaty (Alexiad l xiii p 406–416) is an original and curious
piece, which would require, and might afford, a good map of the principality
of Antioch.
6 See, in the learned work of M De Guignes, (tom ii part ii,) the history of
the Seljukians of Iconium, Aleppo, and Damascus, as far as it may be collected
from the Greeks, Latins, and Arabians The last are ignorant or regardless of the
affairs of Roum.
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CHAPTER LIX
PART I
ries and even the defeats of the Franks; and after the loss of
Nice, they removed their throne to Cogni or Iconium, an obscure and in land town above three hundred miles from Constantinople.7 Instead of trembling for their capital, the Comnenian princes waged an offensive war against the Turks, and
the first crusade prevented the fall of the declining empire.
In the twelfth century, three great emigrations marched by
land from the West for the relief of Palestine. The soldiers
and pilgrims of Lombardy, France, and Germany were excited by the example and success of the first crusade.8 Fortyeight years after the deliverance of the holy sepulchre, the
emperor, and the French king, Conrad the Third and Louis
the Seventh, undertook the second crusade to support the
falling fortunes of the Latins.9 A grand division of the third
crusade was led by the emperor Frederic Barbarossa,10 who
sympathized with his brothers of France and England in the
common loss of Jerusalem. These three expeditions may be
compared in their resemblance of the greatness of numbers,
their passage through the Greek empire, and the nature and
event of their Turkish warfare, and a brief parallel may save
7 Iconium is mentioned as a station by Xenophon, and by Strabo, with an
ambiguous title of KwmopoliV, (Cellarius, tom ii p 121) Yet St Paul found in
that place a multitude (plhqoV) of Jews and Gentiles under the corrupt name
of Kunijah, it is described as a great city, with a river and garden, three leagues
from the mountains, and decorated (I know not why) with Plato’s tomb, (Abulfeda, tabul xvii p 303 vers Reiske; and the Index Geographicus of Schultens
from Ibn Said).
8 For this supplement to the first crusade, see Anna Comnena, (Alexias, l xi
p 331, &c, and the viiith book of Albert Aquensis).
9 For the second crusade, of Conrad III and Louis VII, see William of Tyre, (l
xvi c 18–19,) Otho of Frisingen, (l i c 34–45 59, 60,) Matthew Paris, (Hist Major
p 68,) Struvius, (Corpus Hist Germanicæ, p 372, 373,) Scriptores Rerum Francicarum à Duchesne tom iv: Nicetas, in Vit Manuel, l i c 4, 5, 6, p 41–48, Cinnamus
l ii p 41–49.
10 For the third crusade, of Frederic Barbarossa, see Nicetas in Isaac Angel l ii
c 3–8, p 257–266 Struv (Corpus Hist Germ p 414,) and two historians, who probably were spectators, Tagino, (in Scriptor Freher tom i p 406–416, edit Struv,)
and the Anonymus de Expeditione Asiaticâ Fred I (in Canisii Antiq Lection
tom iii p ii p 498–526, edit Basnage).
5
CHAPTER LIX
PART I
the repetition of a tedious narrative. However splendid it
may seem, a regular story of the crusades would exhibit the
perpetual return of the same causes and effects; and the frequent attempts for the defence or recovery of the Holy Land
would appear so many faint and unsuccessful copies of the
original.
I. Of the swarms that so closely trod in the footsteps of the
first pilgrims, the chiefs were equal in rank, though unequal
in fame and merit, to Godfrey of Bouillon and his fellowadventurers. At their head were displayed the banners of the
dukes of Burgundy, Bavaria, and Aquitain; the first a descendant of Hugh Capet, the second, a father of the Brunswick
line: the archbishop of Milan, a temporal prince, transported,
for the benefit of the Turks, the treasures and ornaments of
his church and palace; and the veteran crusaders, Hugh the
Great and Stephen of Chartres, returned to consummate their
unfinished vow. The huge and disorderly bodies of their followers moved forward in two columns; and if the first consisted of two hundred and sixty thousand persons, the second might possibly amount to sixty thousand horse and one
hundred thousand foot.1112 The armies of the second crusade might have claimed the conquest of Asia; the nobles
of France and Germany were animated by the presence of
their sovereigns; and both the rank and personal character of
Conrad and Louis gave a dignity to their cause, and a discipline to their force, which might be vainly expected from
the feudatory chiefs. The cavalry of the emperor, and that of
the king, was each composed of seventy thousand knights,
11 Anne, who states these later swarms at 40,000 horse and 100,000 foot, calls
them Normans, and places at their head two brothers of Flanders The Greeks
were strangely ignorant of the names, families, and possessions of the Latin
princes.
12 It was this army of pilgrims, the first body of which was headed by the
archbishop of Milan and Count Albert of Blandras, which set forth on the wild,
yet, with a more disciplined army, not impolitic, enterprise of striking at the
heart of the Mahometan power, by attacking the sultan in Bagdad For their
adventures and fate, see Wilken, vol ii p 120, &c, Michaud, book iv–M.
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CHAPTER LIX
PART I
and their immediate attendants in the field;13 and if the lightarmed troops, the peasant infantry, the women and children,
the priests and monks, be rigorously excluded, the full account will scarcely be satisfied with four hundred thousand
souls. The West, from Rome to Britain, was called into action; the kings of Poland and Bohemia obeyed the summons
of Conrad; and it is affirmed by the Greeks and Latins, that,
in the passage of a strait or river, the Byzantine agents, after
a tale of nine hundred thousand, desisted from the endless
and formidable computation.14 In the third crusade, as the
French and English preferred the navigation of the Mediterranean, the host of Frederic Barbarossa was less numerous.
Fifteen thousand knights, and as many squires, were the
flower of the German chivalry: sixty thousand horse, and
one hundred thousand foot, were mustered by the emperor
in the plains of Hungary; and after such repetitions, we shall
no longer be startled at the six hundred thousand pilgrims,
which credulity has ascribed to this last emigration.15 Such
extravagant reckonings prove only the astonishment of contemporaries; but their astonishment most strongly bears testimony to the existence of an enormous, though indefinite,
multitude. The Greeks might applaud their superior knowledge of the arts and stratagems of war, but they confessed the
strength and courage of the French cavalry, and the infantry
13 William of Tyre, and Matthew Paris, reckon 70,000 loricati in each of the
armies.
14 The imperfect enumeration is mentioned by Cinnamus, (ennenhkonta
muriadeV,) and confirmed by Odo de Diogilo apud Ducange ad Cinnamum,
with the more precise sum of 900,556 Why must therefore the version and
comment suppose the modest and insufficient reckoning of 90,000? Does not
Godfrey of Viterbo (Pantheon, p xix in Muratori, tom vii p 462) exclaim? —Numerum si poscere quæras, Millia millena militis agmen erat.
15 This extravagant account is given by Albert of Stade, (apud Struvium, p
414;) my calculation is borrowed from Godfrey of Viterbo, Arnold of Lubeck,
apud eundem, and Bernard Thesaur (c 169, p 804) The original writers are silent
The Mahometans gave him 200,000, or 260,000, men, (Bohadin, in Vit Saladin,
p 110).
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CHAPTER LIX
PART I
of the Germans;16 and the strangers are described as an iron
race, of gigantic stature, who darted fire from their eyes, and
spilt blood like water on the ground. Under the banners of
Conrad, a troop of females rode in the attitude and armor of
men; and the chief of these Amazons, from her gilt spurs and
buskins, obtained the epithet of the Golden-footed Dame.
II. The number and character of the strangers was an object of terror to the effeminate Greeks, and the sentiment of
fear is nearly allied to that of hatred. This aversion was
suspended or softened by the apprehension of the Turkish
power; and the invectives of the Latins will not bias our more
candid belief, that the emperor Alexius dissembled their insolence, eluded their hostilities, counselled their rashness,
and opened to their ardor the road of pilgrimage and conquest. But when the Turks had been driven from Nice and
the sea-coast, when the Byzantine princes no longer dreaded
the distant sultans of Cogni, they felt with purer indignation
the free and frequent passage of the western Barbarians, who
violated the majesty, and endangered the safety, of the empire. The second and third crusades were undertaken under
the reign of Manuel Comnenus and Isaac Angelus. Of the former, the passions were always impetuous, and often malevolent; and the natural union of a cowardly and a mischievous
temper was exemplified in the latter, who, without merit or
mercy, could punish a tyrant, and occupy his throne. It was
secretly, and perhaps tacitly, resolved by the prince and people to destroy, or at least to discourage, the pilgrims, by every
species of injury and oppression; and their want of prudence
and discipline continually afforded the pretence or the opportunity. The Western monarchs had stipulated a safe passage
and fair market in the country of their Christian brethren;
16 I must observe, that, in the second and third crusades, the subjects of Conrad and Frederic are styled by the Greeks and Orientals Alamanni The Lechi and
Tzechi of Cinnamus are the Poles and Bohemians; and it is for the French that
he reserves the ancient appellation of Germans He likewise names the Brittioi,
or Britannoi (He names both–Brittioi te kai Britanoi) –M.
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CHAPTER LIX
PART I
the treaty had been ratified by oaths and hostages; and the
poorest soldier of Frederic’s army was furnished with three
marks of silver to defray his expenses on the road. But every engagement was violated by treachery and injustice; and
the complaints of the Latins are attested by the honest confession of a Greek historian, who has dared to prefer truth to his
country.17 Instead of a hospitable reception, the gates of the
cities, both in Europe and Asia, were closely barred against
the crusaders; and the scanty pittance of food was let down in
baskets from the walls. Experience or foresight might excuse
this timid jealousy; but the common duties of humanity prohibited the mixture of chalk, or other poisonous ingredients,
in the bread; and should Manuel be acquitted of any foul connivance, he is guilty of coining base money for the purpose
of trading with the pilgrims. In every step of their march
they were stopped or misled: the governors had private orders to fortify the passes and break down the bridges against
them: the stragglers were pillaged and murdered: the soldiers and horses were pierced in the woods by arrows from
an invisible hand; the sick were burnt in their beds; and the
dead bodies were hung on gibbets along the highways. These
injuries exasperated the champions of the cross, who were
not endowed with evangelical patience; and the Byzantine
princes, who had provoked the unequal conflict, promoted
the embarkation and march of these formidable guests. On
the verge of the Turkish frontier Barbarossa spared the guilty
Philadelphia,18 rewarded the hospitable Laodicea, and deplored the hard necessity that had stained his sword with any
drops of Christian blood. In their intercourse with the monarchs of Germany and France, the pride of the Greeks was ex17 Nicetas was a child at the second crusade, but in the third he commanded
against the Franks the important post of Philippopolis Cinnamus is infected
with national prejudice and pride.
18 The conduct of the Philadelphians is blamed by Nicetas, while the anonymous German accuses the rudeness of his countrymen, (culpâ nostrâ) History
would be pleasant, if we were embarrassed only by such contradictions It is
likewise from Nicetas, that we learn the pious and humane sorrow of Frederic.
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CHAPTER LIX
PART I
posed to an anxious trial. They might boast that on the first
interview the seat of Louis was a low stool, beside the throne
of Manuel;19 but no sooner had the French king transported
his army beyond the Bosphorus, than he refused the offer of
a second conference, unless his brother would meet him on
equal terms, either on the sea or land. With Conrad and Frederic, the ceremonial was still nicer and more difficult: like the
successors of Constantine, they styled themselves emperors
of the Romans;20 and firmly maintained the purity of their
title and dignity. The first of these representatives of Charlemagne would only converse with Manuel on horseback in
the open field; the second, by passing the Hellespont rather
than the Bosphorus, declined the view of Constantinople and
its sovereign. An emperor, who had been crowned at Rome,
was reduced in the Greek epistles to the humble appellation
of Rex, or prince, of the Alemanni; and the vain and feeble
Angelus affected to be ignorant of the name of one of the
greatest men and monarchs of the age. While they viewed
with hatred and suspicion the Latin pilgrims the Greek emperors maintained a strict, though secret, alliance with the
Turks and Saracens. Isaac Angelus complained, that by his
friendship for the great Saladin he had incurred the enmity
of the Franks; and a mosque was founded at Constantinople
for the public exercise of the religion of Mahomet.21
III. The swarms that followed the first crusade were destroyed in Anatolia by famine, pestilence, and the Turkish
arrows; and the princes only escaped with some squadrons
of horse to accomplish their lamentable pilgrimage. A just
19 Cqamalh edra, which Cinnamus translates into Latin by the word Sellion
Ducange works very hard to save his king and country from such ignominy,
(sur Joinville, dissertat xxvii p 317–320) Louis afterwards insisted on a meeting
in mari ex æquo, not ex equo, according to the laughable readings of some MSS.
20 Ego Romanorum imperator sum, ille Romaniorum, (Anonym Canis p 512)
The public and historical style of the Greeks was Rhx princeps Yet Cinnamus
owns, that ‘Imperatwr is synonymous to BasileuV.
21 In the Epistles of Innocent III, (xiii p 184,) and the History of Bohadin, (p
129, 130,) see the views of a pope and a cadhi on this singulartoleration.
10
CHAPTER LIX
PART I
opinion may be formed of their knowledge and humanity;
of their knowledge, from the design of subduing Persia and
Chorasan in their way to Jerusalem;22 of their humanity, from
the massacre of the Christian people, a friendly city, who
came out to meet them with palms and crosses in their hands.
The arms of Conrad and Louis were less cruel and imprudent; but the event of the second crusade was still more ruinous to Christendom; and the Greek Manuel is accused by
his own subjects of giving seasonable intelligence to the sultan, and treacherous guides to the Latin princes. Instead of
crushing the common foe, by a double attack at the same time
but on different sides, the Germans were urged by emulation,
and the French were retarded by jealousy. Louis had scarcely
passed the Bosphorus when he was met by the returning emperor, who had lost the greater part of his army in glorious,
but unsuccessful, actions on the banks of the Mæander. The
contrast of the pomp of his rival hastened the retreat of Conrad:23 the desertion of his independent vassals reduced him
to his hereditary troops; and he borrowed some Greek vessels to execute by sea the pilgrimage of Palestine. Without
studying the lessons of experience, or the nature of the war,
the king of France advanced through the same country to
a similar fate. The vanguard, which bore the royal banner
and the oriflamme of St. Denys,24 had doubled their march
22 This was the design of the pilgrims under the archbishop of Milan See
note, p 102–M.
23 Conrad had advanced with part of his army along a central road, between
that on the coast and that which led to Iconium He had been betrayed by the
Greeks, his army destroyed without a battle Wilken, vol iii p 165 Michaud, vol
ii p 156 Conrad advanced again with Louis as far as Ephesus, and from thence,
at the invitation of Manuel, returned to Constantinople It was Louis who, at the
passage of the Mæander, was engaged in a “glorious action” Wilken, vol iii p
179 Michaud vol ii p 160 Gibbon followed Nicetas–M.
24 As counts of Vexin, the kings of France were the vassals and advocates
of the monastery of St Denys The saint’s peculiar banner, which they received
from the abbot, was of a square form, and a red or flaming color The oriflamme
appeared at the head of the French armies from the xiith to the xvth century,
(Ducange sur Joinville, Dissert xviii p 244–253).
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CHAPTER LIX
PART I
with rash and inconsiderate speed; and the rear, which the
king commanded in person, no longer found their companions in the evening camp. In darkness and disorder, they
were encompassed, assaulted, and overwhelmed, by the innumerable host of Turks, who, in the art of war, were superior to the Christians of the twelfth century.25 Louis, who
climbed a tree in the general discomfiture, was saved by his
own valor and the ignorance of his adversaries; and with the
dawn of day he escaped alive, but almost alone, to the camp
of the vanguard. But instead of pursuing his expedition by
land, he was rejoiced to shelter the relics of his army in the
friendly seaport of Satalia. From thence he embarked for
Antioch; but so penurious was the supply of Greek vessels,
that they could only afford room for his knights and nobles;
and the plebeian crowd of infantry was left to perish at the
foot of the Pamphylian hills. The emperor and the king embraced and wept at Jerusalem; their martial trains, the remnant of mighty armies, were joined to the Christian powers
of Syria, and a fruitless siege of Damascus was the final effort of the second crusade. Conrad and Louis embarked for
Europe with the personal fame of piety and courage; but the
Orientals had braved these potent monarchs of the Franks,
with whose names and military forces they had been so often
threatened.26 Perhaps they had still more to fear from the veteran genius of Frederic the First, who in his youth had served
in Asia under his uncle Conrad. Forty campaigns in Ger25 They descended the heights to a beautiful valley which by beneath them
The Turks seized the heights which separated the two divisions of the army
The modern historians represent differently the act to which Louis owed his
safety, which Gibbon has described by the undignified phrase, “he climbed a
tree” According to Michaud, vol ii p 164, the king got upon a rock, with his back
against a tree; according to Wilken, vol iii, he dragged himself up to the top of
the rock by the roots of a tree, and continued to defend himself till nightfall–M.
26 The original French histories of the second crusade are the Gesta Ludovici
VII published in the ivth volume of Duchesne’s collection The same volume
contains many original letters of the king, of Suger his minister, &c, the best
documents of authentic history.
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PART I
many and Italy had taught Barbarossa to command; and his
soldiers, even the princes of the empire, were accustomed under his reign to obey. As soon as he lost sight of Philadelphia
and Laodicea, the last cities of the Greek frontier, he plunged
into the salt and barren desert, a land (says the historian) of
horror and tribulation.27 During twenty days, every step of
his fainting and sickly march was besieged by the innumerable hordes of Turkmans,28 whose numbers and fury seemed
after each defeat to multiply and inflame. The emperor continued to struggle and to suffer; and such was the measure
of his calamities, that when he reached the gates of Iconium,
no more than one thousand knights were able to serve on
horseback. By a sudden and resolute assault he defeated the
guards, and stormed the capital of the sultan,29 who humbly
sued for pardon and peace. The road was now open, and
Frederic advanced in a career of triumph, till he was unfortunately drowned in a petty torrent of Cilicia.30 The remainder of his Germans was consumed by sickness and desertion: and the emperor’s son expired with the greatest part
of his Swabian vassals at the siege of Acre. Among the Latin
heroes, Godfrey of Bouillon and Frederic Barbarossa could
alone achieve the passage of the Lesser Asia; yet even their
success was a warning; and in the last and most experienced
age of the crusades, every nation preferred the sea to the toils
27 Terram horroris et salsuginis, terram siccam sterilem, inamnam Anonym
Canis p 517 The emphatic language of a sufferer.
28 Gens innumera, sylvestris, indomita, prædones sine ductore The sultan of
Cogni might sincerely rejoice in their defeat Anonym Canis p 517, 518.
29 See, in the anonymous writer in the Collection of Canisius, Tagino and
Bohadin, (Vit Saladin p 119, 120,) the ambiguous conduct of Kilidge Arslan,
sultan of Cogni, who hated and feared both Saladin and Frederic.
30 The desire of comparing two great men has tempted many writers to
drown Frederic in the River Cydnus, in which Alexander so imprudently
bathed, (Q Curt l iii c 4, 5) But, from the march of the emperor, I rather judge,
that his Saleph is the Calycadnus, a stream of less fame, but of a longer course
(It is now called the Girama: its course is described in M’Donald Kinneir’s
Travels) –M.
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and perils of an inland expedition.31
The enthusiasm of the first crusade is a natural and simple event, while hope was fresh, danger untried, and enterprise congenial to the spirit of the times. But the obstinate perseverance of Europe may indeed excite our pity
and admiration; that no instruction should have been drawn
from constant and adverse experience; that the same confidence should have repeatedly grown from the same failures;
that six succeeding generations should have rushed headlong
down the precipice that was open before them; and that men
of every condition should have staked their public and private fortunes on the desperate adventure of possessing or recovering a tombstone two thousand miles from their country.
In a period of two centuries after the council of Clermont,
each spring and summer produced a new emigration of pilgrim warriors for the defence of the Holy Land; but the seven
great armaments or crusades were excited by some impending or recent calamity: the nations were moved by the authority of their pontiffs, and the example of their kings: their zeal
was kindled, and their reason was silenced, by the voice of
their holy orators; and among these, Bernard,32 the monk, or
the saint, may claim the most honorable place.33 About eight
years before the first conquest of Jerusalem, he was born of
31 Marinus Sanutus, AD 1321, lays it down as a precept, Quod stolus ecclesiæ
per terram nullatenus est ducenda He resolves, by the divine aid, the objection,
or rather exception, of the first crusade, (Secreta Fidelium Crucis, l ii pars ii c i
p 37).
32 The most authentic information of St Bernard must be drawn from his
own writings, published in a correct edition by Père Mabillon, and reprinted
at Venice, 1750, in six volumes in folio Whatever friendship could recollect, or
superstition could add, is contained in the two lives, by his disciples, in the vith
volume: whatever learning and criticism could ascertain, may be found in the
prefaces of the Benedictine editor.
33 Gibbon, whose account of the crusades is perhaps the least accurate and
satisfactory chapter in his History, has here failed in that lucid arrangement,
which in general gives perspicuity to his most condensed and crowded narratives He has unaccountably, and to the great perplexity of the reader, placed the
preaching of St Bernard after the second crusade to which i led–M.
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PART I
a noble family in Burgundy; at the age of three-and-twenty
he buried himself in the monastery of Citeaux, then in the
primitive fervor of the institution; at the end of two years he
led forth her third colony, or daughter, to the valley of Clairvaux34 in Champagne; and was content, till the hour of his
death, with the humble station of abbot of his own community. A philosophic age has abolished, with too liberal and
indiscriminate disdain, the honors of these spiritual heroes.
The meanest among them are distinguished by some energies of the mind; they were at least superior to their votaries
and disciples; and, in the race of superstition, they attained
the prize for which such numbers contended. In speech, in
writing, in action, Bernard stood high above his rivals and
contemporaries; his compositions are not devoid of wit and
eloquence; and he seems to have preserved as much reason
and humanity as may be reconciled with the character of a
saint. In a secular life, he would have shared the seventh part
of a private inheritance; by a vow of poverty and penance, by
closing his eyes against the visible world,35 by the refusal of
all ecclesiastical dignities, the abbot of Clairvaux became the
oracle of Europe, and the founder of one hundred and sixty
convents. Princes and pontiffs trembled at the freedom of his
apostolical censures: France, England, and Milan, consulted
and obeyed his judgment in a schism of the church: the debt
was repaid by the gratitude of Innocent the Second; and his
34 Clairvaux, surnamed the valley of Absynth, is situate among the woods
near Bar sur Aube in Champagne St Bernard would blush at the pomp of the
church and monastery; he would ask for the library, and I know not whether
he would be much edified by a tun of 800 muids, (914 1-7 hogsheads,) which
almost rivals that of Heidelberg, (Mélanges tirés d’une Grande Bibliothèque,
tom xlvi p 15–20).
35 The disciples of the saint (Vit ima, l iii c 2, p 1232 Vit iida, c 16, No 45, p
1383) record a marvellous example of his pious apathy Juxta lacum etiam Lausannensem totius diei itinere pergens, penitus non attendit aut se videre non
vidit Cum enim vespere facto de eodem lacû socii colloquerentur, interrogabat
eos ubi lacus ille esset, et mirati sunt universi To admire or despise St Bernard
as he ought, the reader, like myself, should have before the windows of his
library the beauties of that incomparable landscape.
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PART I
successor, Eugenius the Third, was the friend and disciple
of the holy Bernard. It was in the proclamation of the second crusade that he shone as the missionary and prophet of
God, who called the nations to the defence of his holy sepulchre.36 At the parliament of Vezelay he spoke before the king;
and Louis the Seventh, with his nobles, received their crosses
from his hand. The abbot of Clairvaux then marched to the
less easy conquest of the emperor Conrad:37 a phlegmatic
people, ignorant of his language, was transported by the pathetic vehemence of his tone and gestures; and his progress,
from Constance to Cologne, was the triumph of eloquence
and zeal. Bernard applauds his own success in the depopulation of Europe; affirms that cities and castles were emptied of
their inhabitants; and computes, that only one man was left
behind for the consolation of seven widows.38 The blind fanatics were desirous of electing him for their general; but the
example of the hermit Peter was before his eyes; and while
he assured the crusaders of the divine favor, he prudently
declined a military command, in which failure and victory
would have been almost equally disgraceful to his character.39 Yet, after the calamitous event, the abbot of Clairvaux
was loudly accused as a false prophet, the author of the public and private mourning; his enemies exulted, his friends
36 Otho Frising l i c 4 Bernard Epist 363, ad Francos Orientales Opp tom i p
328 Vit ima, l iii c 4, tom vi p 1235.
37 Bernard had a nobler object in his expedition into Germany–to arrest the
fierce and merciless persecution of the Jews, which was preparing, under the
monk Radulph, to renew the frightful scenes which had preceded the first crusade, in the flourishing cities on the banks of the Rhine The Jews acknowledge
the Christian intervention of St Bernard See the curious extract from the History
of Joseph ben Meir Wilken, vol iii p 1 and p 63–M.
38 Mandastis et obedivi multiplicati sunt super numerum; vacuantur urbes et
castella; et pene jam non inveniunt quem apprehendant septem mulieres unum
virum; adeo ubique viduæ vivis remanent viris Bernard Epist p 247 We must
be careful not to construe pene as a substantive.
39 Quis ego sum ut disponam acies, ut egrediar ante facies armatorum, aut
quid tam remotum a professione meâ, si vires, si peritia, &c Epist 256, tom i p
259 He speaks with contempt of the hermit Peter, vir quidam, Epist 363.
16
CHAPTER LIX
PART I
blushed, and his apology was slow and unsatisfactory. He
justifies his obedience to the commands of the pope; expatiates on the mysterious ways of Providence; imputes the misfortunes of the pilgrims to their own sins; and modestly insinuates, that his mission had been approved by signs and
wonders.40 Had the fact been certain, the argument would
be decisive; and his faithful disciples, who enumerate twenty
or thirty miracles in a day, appeal to the public assemblies
of France and Germany, in which they were performed.41 At
the present hour, such prodigies will not obtain credit beyond
the precincts of Clairvaux; but in the preternatural cures of
the blind, the lame, and the sick, who were presented to the
man of God, it is impossible for us to ascertain the separate
shares of accident, of fancy, of imposture, and of fiction.
Omnipotence itself cannot escape the murmurs of its discordant votaries; since the same dispensation which was applauded as a deliverance in Europe, was deplored, and perhaps arraigned, as a calamity in Asia. After the loss of
Jerusalem, the Syrian fugitives diffused their consternation
and sorrow; Bagdad mourned in the dust; the cadhi Zeineddin of Damascus tore his beard in the caliph’s presence; and
the whole divan shed tears at his melancholy tale.42 But
the commanders of the faithful could only weep; they were
themselves captives in the hands of the Turks: some temporal power was restored to the last age of the Abbassides;
but their humble ambition was confined to Bagdad and the
adjacent province. Their tyrants, the Seljukian sultans, had
followed the common law of the Asiatic dynasties, the un40 Sic dicunt forsitan isti, unde scimus quòd a Domino sermo egressus sit?
Quæ signa tu facis ut credamus tibi? Non est quod ad ista ipse respondeam;
parcendum verecundiæ meæ, responde tu pro me, et pro te ipso, secundum
quæ vidisti et audisti, et secundum quod te inspiraverit Deus Consolat l ii c 1
Opp tom ii p 421–423.
41 See the testimonies in Vita ima, l iv c 5, 6 Opp tom vi p 1258–1261, l vi c
1–17, p 1286–1314.
42 Abulmahasen apud de Guignes, Hist des Huns, tom ii p ii p 99.
17
CHAPTER LIX
PART I
ceasing round of valor, greatness, discord, degeneracy, and
decay; their spirit and power were unequal to the defence
of religion; and, in his distant realm of Persia, the Christians were strangers to the name and the arms of Sangiar,
the last hero of his race.43 While the sultans were involved
in the silken web of the harem, the pious task was undertaken by their slaves, the Atabeks,44 a Turkish name, which,
like the Byzantine patricians, may be translated by Father of
the Prince. Ascansar, a valiant Turk, had been the favorite of
Malek Shaw, from whom he received the privilege of standing on the right hand of the throne; but, in the civil wars
that ensued on the monarch’s death, he lost his head and
the government of Aleppo. His domestic emirs persevered
in their attachment to his son Zenghi, who proved his first
arms against the Franks in the defeat of Antioch: thirty campaigns in the service of the caliph and sultan established his
military fame; and he was invested with the command of Mosul, as the only champion that could avenge the cause of the
prophet. The public hope was not disappointed: after a siege
of twenty-five days, he stormed the city of Edessa, and recovered from the Franks their conquests beyond the Euphrates:45
the martial tribes of Curdistan were subdued by the independent sovereign of Mosul and Aleppo: his soldiers were
taught to behold the camp as their only country; they trusted
43 See his article in the Bibliothèque Orientale of D’Herbelot, and De Guignes,
tom ii p i p 230–261 Such was his valor, that he was styled the second Alexander;
and such the extravagant love of his subjects, that they prayed for the sultan a
year after his decease Yet Sangiar might have been made prisoner by the Franks,
as well as by the Uzes He reigned near fifty years, (AD 1103–1152,) and was a
munificent patron of Persian poetry.
44 See the Chronology of the Atabeks of Irak and Syria, in De Guignes, tom i
p 254; and the reigns of Zenghi and Noureddin in the same writer, (tom ii p ii
p 147–221,) who uses the Arabic text of Benelathir, Ben Schouna and Abulfeda;
the Bibliothèque Orientale, under the articles Atabeks and Noureddin, and the
Dynasties of Abulpharagius, p 250–267, vers Pocock.
45 William of Tyre (l xvi c 4, 5, 7) describes the loss of Edessa, and the death of
Zenghi The corruption of his name into Sanguin, afforded the Latins a comfortable allusion to his sanguinary character and end, fit sanguine sanguinolentus.
18
CHAPTER LIX
PART I
to his liberality for their rewards; and their absent families
were protected by the vigilance of Zenghi. At the head of
these veterans, his son Noureddin gradually united the Mahometan powers;46 added the kingdom of Damascus to that
of Aleppo, and waged a long and successful war against the
Christians of Syria; he spread his ample reign from the Tigris
to the Nile, and the Abbassides rewarded their faithful servant with all the titles and prerogatives of royalty. The Latins
themselves were compelled to own the wisdom and courage,
and even the justice and piety, of this implacable adversary.47
In his life and government the holy warrior revived the zeal
and simplicity of the first caliphs. Gold and silk were banished from his palace; the use of wine from his dominions;
the public revenue was scrupulously applied to the public
service; and the frugal household of Noureddin was maintained from his legitimate share of the spoil which he vested
in the purchase of a private estate. His favorite sultana sighed
for some female object of expense. “Alas,” replied the king, “I
fear God, and am no more than the treasurer of the Moslems.
Their property I cannot alienate; but I still possess three shops
in the city of Hems: these you may take; and these alone
can I bestow.” His chamber of justice was the terror of the
great and the refuge of the poor. Some years after the sultan’s death, an oppressed subject called aloud in the streets of
Damascus, “O Noureddin, Noureddin, where art thou now?
Arise, arise, to pity and protect us!” A tumult was apprehended, and a living tyrant blushed or trembled at the name
of a departed monarch.
46 On Noureddin’s conquest of Damascus, see extracts from Arabian writers
prefixed to the second part of the third volume of Wilken–M.
47 Noradinus (says William of Tyre, l xx 33) maximus nominis et fidei Christianæ persecutor; princeps tamen justus, vafer, providus’ et secundum gentis
suæ traditiones religiosus To this Catholic witness we may add the primate
of the Jacobites, (Abulpharag p 267,) quo non alter erat inter reges vitæ ratione magis laudabili, aut quæ pluribus justitiæ experimentis abundaret The
true praise of kings is after their death, and from the mouth of their enemies.
19
Part II
the arms of the Turks and Franks, the Fatimites had been
B
deprived of Syria. In Egypt the decay of their character and influence was still more essential. Yet they were still
Y
revered as the descendants and successors of the prophet;
they maintained their invisible state in the palace of Cairo;
and their person was seldom violated by the profane eyes
of subjects or strangers. The Latin ambassadors48 have described their own introduction, through a series of gloomy
passages, and glittering porticos: the scene was enlivened
by the warbling of birds and the murmur of fountains: it
was enriched by a display of rich furniture and rare animals;
of the Imperial treasures, something was shown, and much
was supposed; and the long order of unfolding doors was
guarded by black soldiers and domestic eunuchs. The sanctuary of the presence chamber was veiled with a curtain; and
the vizier, who conducted the ambassadors, laid aside the
cimeter, and prostrated himself three times on the ground;
the veil was then removed; and they beheld the commander
of the faithful, who signified his pleasure to the first slave of
the throne. But this slave was his master: the viziers or sultans had usurped the supreme administration of Egypt; the
claims of the rival candidates were decided by arms; and the
name of the most worthy, of the strongest, was inserted in
the royal patent of command. The factions of Dargham and
Shawer alternately expelled each other from the capital and
country; and the weaker side implored the dangerous protection of the sultan of Damascus, or the king of Jerusalem, the
perpetual enemies of the sect and monarchy of the Fatimites.
By his arms and religion the Turk was most formidable; but
the Frank, in an easy, direct march, could advance from Gaza
48 From the ambassador, William of Tyre (l xix c 17, 18,) describes the palace
of Cairo In the caliph’s treasure were found a pearl as large as a pigeon’s egg,
a ruby weighing seventeen Egyptian drams, an emerald a palm and a half in
length, and many vases of crystal and porcelain of China, (Renaudot, p 536).
20
CHAPTER LIX
PART II
to the Nile; while the intermediate situation of his realm compelled the troops of Noureddin to wheel round the skirts of
Arabia, a long and painful circuit, which exposed them to
thirst, fatigue, and the burning winds of the desert. The secret zeal and ambition of the Turkish prince aspired to reign
in Egypt under the name of the Abbassides; but the restoration of the suppliant Shawer was the ostensible motive of the
first expedition; and the success was intrusted to the emir
Shiracouh, a valiant and veteran commander. Dargham was
oppressed and slain; but the ingratitude, the jealousy, the just
apprehensions, of his more fortunate rival, soon provoked
him to invite the king of Jerusalem to deliver Egypt from his
insolent benefactors. To this union the forces of Shiracouh
were unequal: he relinquished the premature conquest; and
the evacuation of Belbeis or Pelusium was the condition of
his safe retreat. As the Turks defiled before the enemy, and
their general closed the rear, with a vigilant eye, and a battle axe in his hand, a Frank presumed to ask him if he were
not afraid of an attack. “It is doubtless in your power to begin the attack,” replied the intrepid emir; “but rest assured,
that not one of my soldiers will go to paradise till he has sent
an infidel to hell.” His report of the riches of the land, the
effeminacy of the natives, and the disorders of the government, revived the hopes of Noureddin; the caliph of Bagdad
applauded the pious design; and Shiracouh descended into
Egypt a second time with twelve thousand Turks and eleven
thousand Arabs. Yet his forces were still inferior to the confederate armies of the Franks and Saracens; and I can discern an unusual degree of military art, in his passage of the
Nile, his retreat into Thebais, his masterly evolutions in the
battle of Babain, the surprise of Alexandria, and his marches
and countermarches in the flats and valley of Egypt, from the
tropic to the sea. His conduct was seconded by the courage of
his troops, and on the eve of action a Mamaluke49 exclaimed,
49 Mamluc, plur Mamalic, is defined by Pocock, (Prolegom ad Abulpharag
p 7,) and D’Herbelot, (p 545,) servum emptitium, seu qui pretio numerato in
21
CHAPTER LIX
PART II
“If we cannot wrest Egypt from the Christian dogs, why do
we not renounce the honors and rewards of the sultan, and
retire to labor with the peasants, or to spin with the females
of the harem?” Yet, after all his efforts in the field,50 after
the obstinate defence of Alexandria51 by his nephew Saladin,
an honorable capitulation and retreat52 concluded the second
enterprise of Shiracouh; and Noureddin reserved his abilities for a third and more propitious occasion. It was soon
offered by the ambition and avarice of Amalric or Amaury,
king of Jerusalem, who had imbibed the pernicious maxim,
that no faith should be kept with the enemies of God.53 A
religious warrior, the great master of the hospital, encouraged him to proceed; the emperor of Constantinople either
gave, or promised, a fleet to act with the armies of Syria;
and the perfidious Christian, unsatisfied with spoil and subsidy, aspired to the conquest of Egypt. In this emergency, the
Moslems turned their eyes towards the sultan of Damascus;
the vizier, whom danger encompassed on all sides, yielded
to their unanimous wishes, and Noureddin seemed to be
tempted by the fair offer of one third of the revenue of the
kingdom. The Franks were already at the gates of Cairo; but
the suburbs, the old city, were burnt on their approach; they
were deceived by an insidious negotiation, and their vessels
domini possessionem cedit They frequently occur in the wars of Saladin, (Bohadin, p 236, &c;) and it was only the Bahartie Mamalukes that were first introduced into Egypt by his descendants.
50 Jacobus à Vitriaco (p 1116) gives the king of Jerusalem no more than 374
knights Both the Franks and the Moslems report the superior numbers of the
enemy; a difference which may be solved by counting or omitting the unwarlike Egyptians.
51 It was the Alexandria of the Arabs, a middle term in extent and riches
between the period of the Greeks and Romans, and that of the Turks, (Savary,
Lettres sur l’Egypte, tom i p 25, 26).
52 The treaty stipulated that both the Christians and the Arabs should withdraw from Egypt Wilken, vol iii part ii p 113–M.
53 The Knights Templars, abhorring the perfidious breach of treaty partly,
perhaps, out of jealousy of the Hospitallers, refused to join in this enterprise
Will Tyre c xx p 5 Wilken, vol iii part ii p 117–M.
22
CHAPTER LIX
PART II
were unable to surmount the barriers of the Nile. They prudently declined a contest with the Turks in the midst of a
hostile country; and Amaury retired into Palestine with the
shame and reproach that always adhere to unsuccessful injustice. After this deliverance, Shiracouh was invested with
a robe of honor, which he soon stained with the blood of
the unfortunate Shawer. For a while, the Turkish emirs condescended to hold the office of vizier; but this foreign conquest precipitated the fall of the Fatimites themselves; and
the bloodless change was accomplished by a message and a
word. The caliphs had been degraded by their own weakness and the tyranny of the viziers: their subjects blushed,
when the descendant and successor of the prophet presented
his naked hand to the rude gripe of a Latin ambassador; they
wept when he sent the hair of his women, a sad emblem of
their grief and terror, to excite the pity of the sultan of Damascus. By the command of Noureddin, and the sentence of the
doctors, the holy names of Abubeker, Omar, and Othman,
were solemnly restored: the caliph Mosthadi, of Bagdad, was
acknowledged in the public prayers as the true commander
of the faithful; and the green livery of the sons of Ali was exchanged for the black color of the Abbassides. The last of his
race, the caliph Adhed, who survived only ten days, expired
in happy ignorance of his fate; his treasures secured the loyalty of the soldiers, and silenced the murmurs of the sectaries;
and in all subsequent revolutions, Egypt has never departed
from the orthodox tradition of the Moslems.54
The hilly country beyond the Tigris is occupied by the pastoral tribes of the Curds;55 a people hardy, strong, savage
54 For this great revolution of Egypt, see William of Tyre, (l xix 5, 6, 7, 12–31,
xx 5–12,) Bohadin, (in Vit Saladin, p 30–39,) Abulfeda, (in Excerpt Schultens, p
1–12,) D’Herbelot, (Bibliot Orient Adhed, Fathemah, but very incorrect,) Renaudot, (Hist Patriarch Alex p 522–525, 532–537,) Vertot, (Hist des Chevaliers de
Malthe, tom i p 141–163, in 4to,) and M de Guignes, (tom ii p 185–215).
55 For the Curds, see De Guignes, tom ii p 416, 417, the Index Geographicus
of Schultens and Tavernier, Voyages, p i p 308, 309 The Ayoubites descended
23
CHAPTER LIX
PART II
impatient of the yoke, addicted to rapine, and tenacious of
the government of their national chiefs. The resemblance
of name, situation, and manners, seems to identify them
with the Carduchians of the Greeks;56 and they still defend
against the Ottoman Porte the antique freedom which they
asserted against the successors of Cyrus. Poverty and ambition prompted them to embrace the profession of mercenary soldiers: the service of his father and uncle prepared the
reign of the great Saladin;57 and the son of Job or Ayud, a
simple Curd, magnanimously smiled at his pedigree, which
flattery deduced from the Arabian caliphs.58 So unconscious
was Noureddin of the impending ruin of his house, that he
constrained the reluctant youth to follow his uncle Shiracouh
into Egypt: his military character was established by the defence of Alexandria; and, if we may believe the Latins, he
solicited and obtained from the Christian general the profanehonors of knighthood.59 On the death of Shiracouh,
the office of grand vizier was bestowed on Saladin, as the
youngest and least powerful of the emirs; but with the advice of his father, whom he invited to Cairo, his genius obfrom the tribe of the Rawadiæi, one of the noblest; but as they were infected with
the heresy of the Metempsychosis, the orthodox sultans insinuated that their
descent was only on the mother’s side, and that their ancestor was a stranger
who settled among the Curds.
56 See the ivth book of the Anabasis of Xenophon The ten thousand suffered
more from the arrows of the free Carduchians, than from the splendid weakness
of the great king.
57 We are indebted to the professor Schultens (Lugd Bat, 1755, in folio) for the
richest and most authentic materials, a life of Saladin by his friend and minister
the Cadhi Bohadin, and copious extracts from the history of his kinsman the
prince Abulfeda of Hamah To these we may add, the article of Salaheddin in
the Bibliothèque Orientale, and all that may be gleaned from the Dynasties of
Abulpharagius.
58 Since Abulfeda was himself an Ayoubite, he may share the praise, for imitating, at least tacitly, the modesty of the founder.
59 Hist Hierosol in the Gesta Dei per Francos, p 1152 A similar example may
be found in Joinville, (p 42, edition du Louvre;) but the pious St Louis refused
to dignify infidels with the order of Christian knighthood, (Ducange, Observations, p 70).
24
CHAPTER LIX
PART II
tained the ascendant over his equals, and attached the army
to his person and interest. While Noureddin lived, these ambitious Curds were the most humble of his slaves; and the indiscreet murmurs of the divan were silenced by the prudent
Ayub, who loudly protested that at the command of the sultan he himself would lead his sons in chains to the foot of the
throne. “Such language,” he added in private, “was prudent
and proper in an assembly of your rivals; but we are now
above fear and obedience; and the threats of Noureddin shall
not extort the tribute of a sugar-cane.” His seasonable death
relieved them from the odious and doubtful conflict: his son,
a minor of eleven years of age, was left for a while to the
emirs of Damascus; and the new lord of Egypt was decorated
by the caliph with every title60 that could sanctify his usurpation in the eyes of the people. Nor was Saladin long content
with the possession of Egypt; he despoiled the Christians of
Jerusalem, and the Atabeks of Damascus, Aleppo, and Diarbekir: Mecca and Medina acknowledged him for their temporal protector: his brother subdued the distant regions of
Yemen, or the happy Arabia; and at the hour of his death,
his empire was spread from the African Tripoli to the Tigris,
and from the Indian Ocean to the mountains of Armenia. In
the judgment of his character, the reproaches of treason and
ingratitude strike forcibly on our minds, impressed, as they
are, with the principle and experience of law and loyalty. But
his ambition may in some measure be excused by the revolutions of Asia,61 which had erased every notion of legitimate
succession; by the recent example of the Atabeks themselves;
by his reverence to the son of his benefactor; his humane and
generous behavior to the collateral branches; by their incapac60 In these Arabic titles, religionis must always be understood; Noureddin,
lumen r; Ezzodin, decus; Amadoddin, columen: our hero’s proper name was
Joseph, and he was styled Salahoddin, salus; Al Malichus, Al Nasirus, rex defensor; Abu Modaffer, pater victoriæ, Schultens, Præfat.
61 Abulfeda, who descended from a brother of Saladin, observes, from many
examples, that the founders of dynasties took the guilt for themselves, and left
the reward to their innocent collaterals, (Excerpt p 10).
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CHAPTER LIX
PART II
ity and his merit; by the approbation of the caliph, the sole
source of all legitimate power; and, above all, by the wishes
and interest of the people, whose happiness is the first object
of government. In his virtues, and in those of his patron, they
admired the singular union of the hero and the saint; for both
Noureddin and Saladin are ranked among the Mahometan
saints; and the constant meditation of the holy war appears
to have shed a serious and sober color over their lives and
actions. The youth of the latter62 was addicted to wine and
women: but his aspiring spirit soon renounced the temptations of pleasure for the graver follies of fame and dominion:
the garment of Saladin was of coarse woollen; water was his
only drink; and, while he emulated the temperance, he surpassed the chastity, of his Arabian prophet. Both in faith and
practice he was a rigid Mussulman: he ever deplored that the
defence of religion had not allowed him to accomplish the
pilgrimage of Mecca; but at the stated hours, five times each
day, the sultan devoutly prayed with his brethren: the involuntary omission of fasting was scrupulously repaid; and his
perusal of the Koran, on horseback between the approaching
armies, may be quoted as a proof, however ostentatious, of
piety and courage.63 The superstitious doctrine of the sect
of Shafei was the only study that he deigned to encourage:
the poets were safe in his contempt; but all profane science
was the object of his aversion; and a philosopher, who had
invented some speculative novelties, was seized and strangled by the command of the royal saint. The justice of his divan was accessible to the meanest suppliant against himself
and his ministers; and it was only for a kingdom that Saladin
would deviate from the rule of equity. While the descendants
of Seljuk and Zenghi held his stirrup and smoothed his garments, he was affable and patient with the meanest of his
servants. So boundless was his liberality, that he distributed
62 See
his life and character in Renaudot, p 537–548.
63 His civil and religious virtues are celebrated in the first chapter of Bohadin,
(p 4–30,) himself an eye-witness, and an honest bigot.
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twelve thousand horses at the siege of Acre; and, at the time
of his death, no more than forty-seven drams of silver and
one piece of gold coin were found in the treasury; yet, in a
martial reign, the tributes were diminished, and the wealthy
citizens enjoyed, without fear or danger, the fruits of their industry. Egypt, Syria, and Arabia, were adorned by the royal
foundations of hospitals, colleges, and mosques; and Cairo
was fortified with a wall and citadel; but his works were consecrated to public use:64 nor did the sultan indulge himself in
a garden or palace of private luxury. In a fanatic age, himself
a fanatic, the genuine virtues of Saladin commanded the esteem of the Christians; the emperor of Germany gloried in his
friendship;65 the Greek emperor solicited his alliance;66 and
the conquest of Jerusalem diffused, and perhaps magnified,
his fame both in the East and West.
During his short existence, the kingdom of Jerusalem67 was
supported by the discord of the Turks and Saracens; and
both the Fatimite caliphs and the sultans of Damascus were
tempted to sacrifice the cause of their religion to the meaner
considerations of private and present advantage. But the
powers of Egypt, Syria, and Arabia, were now united by a
hero, whom nature and fortune had armed against the Christians. All without now bore the most threatening aspect; and
all was feeble and hollow in the internal state of Jerusalem.
After the two first Baldwins, the brother and cousin of Godfrey of Bouillon, the sceptre devolved by female succession to
Melisenda, daughter of the second Baldwin, and her husband
Fulk, count of Anjou, the father, by a former marriage, of
our English Plantagenets. Their two sons, Baldwin the Third,
64 In many works, particularly Joseph’s well in the castle of Cairo, the Sultan and the Patriarch have been confounded by the ignorance of natives and
travellers.
65 Anonym Canisii, tom iii p ii p 504.
66 Bohadin, p 129, 130.
67 For the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, see William of Tyre, from the ixth
to the xxiid book Jacob a Vitriaco, Hist Hierosolem l i, and Sanutus Secreta
Fidelium Crucis, l iii p vi vii viii ix.
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and Amaury, waged a strenuous, and not unsuccessful, war
against the infidels; but the son of Amaury, Baldwin the
Fourth, was deprived, by the leprosy, a gift of the crusades,
of the faculties both of mind and body. His sister Sybilla,
the mother of Baldwin the Fifth, was his natural heiress: after the suspicious death of her child, she crowned her second
husband, Guy of Lusignan, a prince of a handsome person,
but of such base renown, that his own brother Jeffrey was
heard to exclaim, “Since they have made him a king, surely
they would have made me a god!” The choice was generally blamed; and the most powerful vassal, Raymond count
of Tripoli, who had been excluded from the succession and
regency, entertained an implacable hatred against the king,
and exposed his honor and conscience to the temptations of
the sultan. Such were the guardians of the holy city; a leper,
a child, a woman, a coward, and a traitor: yet its fate was
delayed twelve years by some supplies from Europe, by the
valor of the military orders, and by the distant or domestic
avocations of their great enemy. At length, on every side, the
sinking state was encircled and pressed by a hostile line: and
the truce was violated by the Franks, whose existence it protected. A soldier of fortune, Reginald of Chatillon, had seized
a fortress on the edge of the desert, from whence he pillaged
the caravans, insulted Mahomet, and threatened the cities of
Mecca and Medina. Saladin condescended to complain; rejoiced in the denial of justice, and at the head of fourscore
thousand horse and foot invaded the Holy Land. The choice
of Tiberias for his first siege was suggested by the count of
Tripoli, to whom it belonged; and the king of Jerusalem was
persuaded to drain his garrison, and to arm his people, for
the relief of that important place.68 By the advice of the perfidious Raymond, the Christians were betrayed into a camp
68 Templarii ut apes bombabant et Hospitalarii ut venti stridebant, et barones
se exitio offerebant, et Turcopuli (the Christian light troops) semet ipsi in ignem
injiciebant, (Ispahani de Expugnatione Kudsiticâ, p 18, apud Schultens;) a specimen of Arabian eloquence, somewhat different from the style of Xenophon!.
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destitute of water: he fled on the first onset, with the curses
of both nations:69 Lusignan was overthrown, with the loss
of thirty thousand men; and the wood of the true cross (a
dire misfortune!) was left in the power of the infidels.70 The
royal captive was conducted to the tent of Saladin; and as
he fainted with thirst and terror, the generous victor presented him with a cup of sherbet, cooled in snow, without
suffering his companion, Reginald of Chatillon, to partake
of this pledge of hospitality and pardon. “The person and
dignity of a king,” said the sultan, “are sacred, but this impious robber must instantly acknowledge the prophet, whom
he has blasphemed, or meet the death which he has so often deserved.” On the proud or conscientious refusal of the
Christian warrior, Saladin struck him on the head with his
cimeter, and Reginald was despatched by the guards.71 The
69 The Latins affirm, the Arabians insinuate, the treason of Raymond; but
had he really embraced their religion, he would have been a saint and a hero in
the eyes of the latter.
70 Raymond’s advice would have prevented the abandonment of a secure
camp abounding with water near Sepphoris The rash and insolent valor of the
master of the order of Knights Templars, which had before exposed the Christians to a fatal defeat at the brook Kishon, forced the feeble king to annul the
determination of a council of war, and advance to a camp in an enclosed valley
among the mountains, near Hittin, without water Raymond did not fly till the
battle was irretrievably lost, and then the Saracens seem to have opened their
ranks to allow him free passage The charge of suggesting the siege of Tiberias
appears ungrounded Raymond, no doubt, played a double part: he was a man
of strong sagacity, who foresaw the desperate nature of the contest with Saladin, endeavored by every means to maintain the treaty, and, though he joined
both his arms and his still more valuable counsels to the Christian army, yet
kept up a kind of amicable correspondence with the Mahometans See Wilken,
vol iii part ii p 276, et seq Michaud, vol ii p 278, et seq M Michaud is still more
friendly than Wilken to the memory of Count Raymond, who died suddenly,
shortly after the battle of Hittin He quotes a letter written in the name of Saladin by the caliph Alfdel, to show that Raymond was considered by the Mahometans their most dangerous and detested enemy “No person of distinction
among the Christians escaped, except the count, (of Tripoli) whom God curse
God made him die shortly afterwards, and sent him from the kingdom of death
to hell”–M.
71 Benaud, Reginald, or Arnold de Chatillon, is celebrated by the Latins in
his life and death; but the circumstances of the latter are more distinctly related
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trembling Lusignan was sent to Damascus, to an honorable
prison and speedy ransom; but the victory was stained by the
execution of two hundred and thirty knights of the hospital,
the intrepid champions and martyrs of their faith. The kingdom was left without a head; and of the two grand masters
of the military orders, the one was slain and the other was
a prisoner. From all the cities, both of the sea-coast and the
inland country, the garrisons had been drawn away for this
fatal field: Tyre and Tripoli alone could escape the rapid inroad of Saladin; and three months after the battle of Tiberias,
he appeared in arms before the gates of Jerusalem.72
He might expect that the siege of a city so venerable on
earth and in heaven, so interesting to Europe and Asia,
would rekindle the last sparks of enthusiasm; and that, of
sixty thousand Christians, every man would be a soldier, and
every soldier a candidate for martyrdom. But Queen Sybilla
trembled for herself and her captive husband; and the barons
and knights, who had escaped from the sword and chains
of the Turks, displayed the same factious and selfish spirit
in the public ruin. The most numerous portion of the inhabitants was composed of the Greek and Oriental Christians, whom experience had taught to prefer the Mahometan
before the Latin yoke;73 and the holy sepulchre attracted a
base and needy crowd, without arms or courage, who subsisted only on the charity of the pilgrims. Some feeble and
hasty efforts were made for the defence of Jerusalem: but
in the space of fourteen days, a victorious army drove back
the sallies of the besieged, planted their engines, opened the
by Bohadin and Abulfeda; and Joinville (Hist de St Louis, p 70) alludes to the
practice of Saladin, of never putting to death a prisoner who had tasted his
bread and salt Some of the companions of Arnold had been slaughtered, and
almost sacrificed, in a valley of Mecca, ubi sacrificia mactantur, (Abulfeda, p
32).
72 Vertot, who well describes the loss of the kingdom and city (Hist des
Chevaliers de Malthe, tom i l ii p 226–278,) inserts two original epistles of a
Knight Templar.
73 Renaudot, Hist Patriarch Alex p 545.
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wall to the breadth of fifteen cubits, applied their scalingladders, and erected on the breach twelve banners of the
prophet and the sultan. It was in vain that a barefoot procession of the queen, the women, and the monks, implored
the Son of God to save his tomb and his inheritance from
impious violation. Their sole hope was in the mercy of the
conqueror, and to their first suppliant deputation that mercy
was sternly denied. “He had sworn to avenge the patience
and long-suffering of the Moslems; the hour of forgiveness
was elapsed, and the moment was now arrived to expiate,
in blood, the innocent blood which had been spilt by Godfrey and the first crusaders.” But a desperate and successful struggle of the Franks admonished the sultan that his
triumph was not yet secure; he listened with reverence to
a solemn adjuration in the name of the common Father of
mankind; and a sentiment of human sympathy mollified the
rigor of fanaticism and conquest. He consented to accept the
city, and to spare the inhabitants. The Greek and Oriental
Christians were permitted to live under his dominion, but it
was stipulated, that in forty days all the Franks and Latins
should evacuate Jerusalem, and be safely conducted to the
seaports of Syria and Egypt; that ten pieces of gold should
be paid for each man, five for each woman, and one for every child; and that those who were unable to purchase their
freedom should be detained in perpetual slavery. Of some
writers it is a favorite and invidious theme to compare the
humanity of Saladin with the massacre of the first crusade.
The difference would be merely personal; but we should not
forget that the Christians had offered to capitulate, and that
the Mahometans of Jerusalem sustained the last extremities
of an assault and storm. Justice is indeed due to the fidelity
with which the Turkish conqueror fulfilled the conditions of
the treaty; and he may be deservedly praised for the glance of
pity which he cast on the misery of the vanquished. Instead
of a rigorous exaction of his debt, he accepted a sum of thirty
thousand byzants, for the ransom of seven thousand poor;
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two or three thousand more were dismissed by his gratuitous
clemency; and the number of slaves was reduced to eleven or
fourteen thousand persons. In this interview with the queen,
his words, and even his tears suggested the kindest consolations; his liberal alms were distributed among those who
had been made orphans or widows by the fortune of war;
and while the knights of the hospital were in arms against
him, he allowed their more pious brethren to continue, during the term of a year, the care and service of the sick. In
these acts of mercy the virtue of Saladin deserves our admiration and love: he was above the necessity of dissimulation, and his stern fanaticism would have prompted him
to dissemble, rather than to affect, this profane compassion
for the enemies of the Koran. After Jerusalem had been delivered from the presence of the strangers, the sultan made
his triumphal entry, his banners waving in the wind, and to
the harmony of martial music. The great mosque of Omar,
which had been converted into a church, was again consecrated to one God and his prophet Mahomet: the walls and
pavement were purified with rose-water; and a pulpit, the labor of Noureddin, was erected in the sanctuary. But when the
golden cross that glittered on the dome was cast down, and
dragged through the streets, the Christians of every sect uttered a lamentable groan, which was answered by the joyful
shouts of the Moslems. In four ivory chests the patriarch had
collected the crosses, the images, the vases, and the relics of
the holy place; they were seized by the conqueror, who was
desirous of presenting the caliph with the trophies of Christian idolatry. He was persuaded, however, to intrust them
to the patriarch and prince of Antioch; and the pious pledge
was redeemed by Richard of England, at the expense of fiftytwo thousand byzants of gold.74
The nations might fear and hope the immediate and final
74 For the conquest of Jerusalem, Bohadin (p 67–75) and Abulfeda (p 40–43)
are our Moslem witnesses Of the Christian, Bernard Thesaurarius (c 151–167)
is the most copious and authentic; see likewise Matthew Paris, (p 120–124).
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expulsion of the Latins from Syria; which was yet delayed
above a century after the death of Saladin.75 In the career of
victory, he was first checked by the resistance of Tyre; the
troops and garrisons, which had capitulated, were imprudently conducted to the same port: their numbers were adequate to the defence of the place; and the arrival of Conrad
of Montferrat inspired the disorderly crowd with confidence
and union. His father, a venerable pilgrim, had been made
prisoner in the battle of Tiberias; but that disaster was unknown in Italy and Greece, when the son was urged by ambition and piety to visit the inheritance of his royal nephew,
the infant Baldwin. The view of the Turkish banners warned
him from the hostile coast of Jaffa; and Conrad was unanimously hailed as the prince and champion of Tyre, which was
already besieged by the conqueror of Jerusalem. The firmness of his zeal, and perhaps his knowledge of a generous
foe, enabled him to brave the threats of the sultan, and to declare, that should his aged parent be exposed before the walls,
he himself would discharge the first arrow, and glory in his
descent from a Christian martyr.76 The Egyptian fleet was allowed to enter the harbor of Tyre; but the chain was suddenly
drawn, and five galleys were either sunk or taken: a thousand Turks were slain in a sally; and Saladin, after burning
his engines, concluded a glorious campaign by a disgraceful retreat to Damascus. He was soon assailed by a more
formidable tempest. The pathetic narratives, and even the
pictures, that represented in lively colors the servitude and
profanation of Jerusalem, awakened the torpid sensibility of
Europe: the emperor Frederic Barbarossa, and the kings of
France and England, assumed the cross; and the tardy mag75 The sieges of Tyre and Acre are most copiously described by Bernard Thesaurarius, (de Acquisitione Terræ Sanctæ, c 167–179,) the author of the Historia
Hierosolymitana, (p 1150–1172, in Bongarsius,) Abulfeda, (p 43–50,) and Bohadin, (p 75–179).
76 I have followed a moderate and probable representation of the fact; by Vertot, who adopts without reluctance a romantic tale the old marquis is actually
exposed to the darts of the besieged.
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nitude of their armaments was anticipated by the maritime
states of the Mediterranean and the Ocean. The skilful and
provident Italians first embarked in the ships of Genoa, Pisa,
and Venice. They were speedily followed by the most eager
pilgrims of France, Normandy, and the Western Isles. The
powerful succor of Flanders, Frise, and Denmark, filled near
a hundred vessels: and the Northern warriors were distinguished in the field by a lofty stature and a ponderous battleaxe.77 Their increasing multitudes could no longer be confined within the walls of Tyre, or remain obedient to the voice
of Conrad. They pitied the misfortunes, and revered the dignity, of Lusignan, who was released from prison, perhaps,
to divide the army of the Franks. He proposed the recovery
of Ptolemais, or Acre, thirty miles to the south of Tyre; and
the place was first invested by two thousand horse and thirty
thousand foot under his nominal command. I shall not expatiate on the story of this memorable siege; which lasted near
two years, and consumed, in a narrow space, the forces of Europe and Asia. Never did the flame of enthusiasm burn with
fiercer and more destructive rage; nor could the true believers, a common appellation, who consecrated their own martyrs, refuse some applause to the mistaken zeal and courage
of their adversaries. At the sound of the holy trumpet, the
Moslems of Egypt, Syria, Arabia, and the Oriental provinces,
assembled under the servant of the prophet:78 his camp was
pitched and removed within a few miles of Acre; and he labored, night and day, for the relief of his brethren and the
annoyance of the Franks. Nine battles, not unworthy of the
name, were fought in the neighborhood of Mount Carmel,
with such vicissitude of fortune, that in one attack, the sultan
77 Northmanni et Gothi, et cæteri populi insularum quæ inter occidentem et
septentrionem sitæ sunt, gentes bellicosæ, corporis proceri mortis intrepidæ,
bipennibus armatæ, navibus rotundis, quæ Ysnachiæ dicuntur, advectæ.
78 The historian of Jerusalem (p 1108) adds the nations of the East from the
Tigris to India, and the swarthy tribes of Moors and Getulians, so that Asia and
Africa fought against Europe.
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PART II
forced his way into the city; that in one sally, the Christians
penetrated to the royal tent. By the means of divers and pigeons, a regular correspondence was maintained with the besieged; and, as often as the sea was left open, the exhausted
garrison was withdrawn, and a fresh supply was poured into
the place. The Latin camp was thinned by famine, the sword
and the climate; but the tents of the dead were replenished
with new pilgrims, who exaggerated the strength and speed
of their approaching countrymen. The vulgar was astonished
by the report, that the pope himself, with an innumerable crusade, was advanced as far as Constantinople. The march of
the emperor filled the East with more serious alarms: the obstacles which he encountered in Asia, and perhaps in Greece,
were raised by the policy of Saladin: his joy on the death
of Barbarossa was measured by his esteem; and the Christians were rather dismayed than encouraged at the sight of
the duke of Swabia and his way-worn remnant of five thousand Germans. At length, in the spring of the second year, the
royal fleets of France and England cast anchor in the Bay of
Acre, and the siege was more vigorously prosecuted by the
youthful emulation of the two kings, Philip Augustus and
Richard Plantagenet. After every resource had been tried,
and every hope was exhausted, the defenders of Acre submitted to their fate; a capitulation was granted, but their lives
and liberties were taxed at the hard conditions of a ransom of
two hundred thousand pieces of gold, the deliverance of one
hundred nobles, and fifteen hundred inferior captives, and
the restoration of the wood of the holy cross. Some doubts
in the agreement, and some delay in the execution, rekindled the fury of the Franks, and three thousand Moslems, almost in the sultan’s view, were beheaded by the command of
the sanguinary Richard.79 By the conquest of Acre, the Latin
79 Bohadin, p 180; and this massacre is neither denied nor blamed by the
Christian historians Alacriter jussa complentes, (the English soldiers,) says Galfridus à Vinesauf, (l iv c 4, p 346,) who fixes at 2700 the number of victims; who
are multiplied to 5000 by Roger Hoveden, (p 697, 698) The humanity or avarice
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powers acquired a strong town and a convenient harbor; but
the advantage was most dearly purchased. The minister and
historian of Saladin computes, from the report of the enemy,
that their numbers, at different periods, amounted to five or
six hundred thousand; that more than one hundred thousand
Christians were slain; that a far greater number was lost by
disease or shipwreck; and that a small portion of this mighty
host could return in safety to their native countries.80
of Philip Augustus was persuaded to ransom his prisoners, (Jacob à Vitriaco, l
i c 98, p 1122).
80 Bohadin, p 14 He quotes the judgment of Balianus, and the prince of
Sidon, and adds, ex illo mundo quasi hominum paucissimi redierunt Among
the Christians who died before St John d’Acre, I find the English names of De
Ferrers earl of Derby, (Dugdale, Baronage, part i p 260,) Mowbray, (idem, p
124,) De Mandevil, De Fiennes, St John, Scrope, Bigot, Talbot, &c.
36
Part III
Augustus, and Richard the First, are the only kings
P
of France and England who have fought under the same
banners; but the holy service in which they were enlisted was
HILIP
incessantly disturbed by their national jealousy; and the two
factions, which they protected in Palestine, were more averse
to each other than to the common enemy. In the eyes of the
Orientals; the French monarch was superior in dignity and
power; and, in the emperor’s absence, the Latins revered him
as their temporal chief.81 His exploits were not adequate to
his fame. Philip was brave, but the statesman predominated
in his character; he was soon weary of sacrificing his health
and interest on a barren coast: the surrender of Acre became
the signal of his departure; nor could he justify this unpopular desertion, by leaving the duke of Burgundy with five
hundred knights and ten thousand foot, for the service of the
Holy Land. The king of England, though inferior in dignity,
surpassed his rival in wealth and military renown;82 and if
heroism be confined to brutal and ferocious valor, Richard
Plantagenet will stand high among the heroes of the age. The
memory of Cur de Lion, of the lion-hearted prince, was long
dear and glorious to his English subjects; and, at the distance of sixty years, it was celebrated in proverbial sayings
by the grandsons of the Turks and Saracens, against whom
he had fought: his tremendous name was employed by the
Syrian mothers to silence their infants; and if a horse suddenly started from the way, his rider was wont to exclaim,
81 Magnus hic apud eos, interque reges eorum tum virtute tum majestate
eminens summus rerum arbiter, (Bohadin, p 159) He does not seem to have
known the names either of Philip or Richard.
82 Rex Angliæ, præstrenuus rege Gallorum minor apud eos censebatur ratione regni atque dignitatis; sed tum divitiis florentior, tum bellicâ virtute multo
erat celebrior, (Bohadin, p 161) A stranger might admire those riches; the national historians will tell with what lawless and wasteful oppression they were
collected.
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“Dost thou think King Richard is in that bush?”83 His cruelty
to the Mahometans was the effect of temper and zeal; but I
cannot believe that a soldier, so free and fearless in the use of
his lance, would have descended to whet a dagger against his
valiant brother Conrad of Montferrat, who was slain at Tyre
by some secret assassins.84 After the surrender of Acre, and
the departure of Philip, the king of England led the crusaders
to the recovery of the sea-coast; and the cities of Cæsarea and
Jaffa were added to the fragments of the kingdom of Lusignan. A march of one hundred miles from Acre to Ascalon
was a great and perpetual battle of eleven days. In the disorder of his troops, Saladin remained on the field with seventeen guards, without lowering his standard, or suspending
the sound of his brazen kettle-drum: he again rallied and renewed the charge; and his preachers or heralds called aloud
on the unitarians, manfully to stand up against the Christian
idolaters. But the progress of these idolaters was irresistible;
and it was only by demolishing the walls and buildings of
Ascalon, that the sultan could prevent them from occupying
an important fortress on the confines of Egypt. During a severe winter, the armies slept; but in the spring, the Franks advanced within a day’s march of Jerusalem, under the leading
standard of the English king; and his active spirit intercepted
83 Joinville,
p 17 Cuides-tu que ce soit le roi Richart?.
he was guilty in the opinion of the Moslems, who attest the confession
of the assassins, that they were sent by the king of England, (Bohadin, p 225;)
and his only defence is an absurd and palpable forgery, (Hist de l’Académie des
Inscriptions, tom xv p 155–163,) a pretended letter from the prince of the assassins, the Sheich, or old man of the mountain, who justified Richard, by assuming to himself the guilt or merit of the murder * Von Hammer (Geschichte der
Assassinen, p 202) sums up against Richard, Wilken (vol iv p 485) as strongly
for acquittal Michaud (vol ii p 420) delivers no decided opinion This crime was
also attributed to Saladin, who is said, by an Oriental authority, (the continuator of Tabari,) to have employed the assassins to murder both Conrad and
Richard It is a melancholy admission, but it must be acknowledged, that such
an act would be less inconsistent with the character of the Christian than of the
Mahometan king –M.
84 Yet
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a convoy, or caravan, of seven thousand camels. Saladin85
had fixed his station in the holy city; but the city was struck
with consternation and discord: he fasted; he prayed; he
preached; he offered to share the dangers of the siege; but his
Mamalukes, who remembered the fate of their companions
at Acre, pressed the sultan with loyal or seditious clamors,
to reserve his person and their courage for the future defence
of the religion and empire.86 The Moslems were delivered
by the sudden, or, as they deemed, the miraculous, retreat of
the Christians;87 and the laurels of Richard were blasted by
the prudence, or envy, of his companions. The hero, ascending a hill, and veiling his face, exclaimed with an indignant
voice, “Those who are unwilling to rescue, are unworthy to
view, the sepulchre of Christ!” After his return to Acre, on the
news that Jaffa was surprised by the sultan, he sailed with
some merchant vessels, and leaped foremost on the beach:
the castle was relieved by his presence; and sixty thousand
Turks and Saracens fled before his arms. The discovery of
his weakness, provoked them to return in the morning; and
they found him carelessly encamped before the gates with
only seventeen knights and three hundred archers. Without counting their numbers, he sustained their charge; and
we learn from the evidence of his enemies, that the king of
England, grasping his lance, rode furiously along their front,
from the right to the left wing, without meeting an adversary
85 See the distress and pious firmness of Saladin, as they are described by
Bohadin, (p 7–9, 235–237,) who himself harangued the defenders of Jerusalem;
their fears were not unknown to the enemy, (Jacob à Vitriaco, l i c 100, p 1123
Vinisauf, l v c 50, p 399).
86 Yet unless the sultan, or an Ayoubite prince, remained in Jerusalem, nec
Curdi Turcis, nec Turci essent obtemperaturi Curdis, (Bohadin, p 236) He draws
aside a corner of the political curtain.
87 Bohadin, (p 237,) and even Jeffrey de Vinisauf, (l vi c 1–8, p 403–409,) ascribe the retreat to Richard himself; and Jacobus à Vitriaco observes, that in his
impatience to depart, in alterum virum mutatus est, (p 1123) Yet Joinville, a
French knight, accuses the envy of Hugh duke of Burgundy, (p 116,) without
supposing, like Matthew Paris, that he was bribed by Saladin.
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who dared to encounter his career.88 Am I writing the history
of Orlando or Amadis?
During these hostilities, a languid and tedious negotiation89 between the Franks and Moslems was started, and continued, and broken, and again resumed, and again broken.
Some acts of royal courtesy, the gift of snow and fruit, the exchange of Norway hawks and Arabian horses, softened the
asperity of religious war: from the vicissitude of success, the
monarchs might learn to suspect that Heaven was neutral in
the quarrel; nor, after the trial of each other, could either hope
for a decisive victory.90 The health both of Richard and Saladin appeared to be in a declining state; and they respectively
suffered the evils of distant and domestic warfare: Plantagenet was impatient to punish a perfidious rival who had invaded Normandy in his absence; and the indefatigable sultan
was subdued by the cries of the people, who was the victim,
and of the soldiers, who were the instruments, of his martial zeal. The first demands of the king of England were the
restitution of Jerusalem, Palestine, and the true cross; and he
firmly declared, that himself and his brother pilgrims would
end their lives in the pious labor, rather than return to Europe with ignominy and remorse. But the conscience of Sal88 The expeditions to Ascalon, Jerusalem, and Jaffa, are related by Bohadin
(p 184–249) and Abulfeda, (p 51, 52) The author of the Itinerary, or the monk
of St Alban’s, cannot exaggerate the cadhi’s account of the prowess of Richard,
(Vinisauf, l vi c 14–24, p 412–421 Hist Major, p 137–143;) and on the whole of this
war there is a marvellous agreement between the Christian and Mahometan
writers, who mutually praise the virtues of their enemies.
89 See the progress of negotiation and hostility in Bohadin, (p 207–260,) who
was himself an actor in the treaty Richard declared his intention of returning
with new armies to the conquest of the Holy Land; and Saladin answered the
menace with a civil compliment, (Vinisauf l vi c 28, p 423).
90 The most copious and original account of this holy war is Galfridi à Vinisauf, Itinerarium Regis Anglorum Richardi et aliorum in Terram Hierosolymorum, in six books, published in the iid volume of Gale’s Scriptores Hist Anglicanæ, (p 247–429) Roger Hoveden and Matthew Paris afford likewise many
valuable materials; and the former describes, with accuracy, the discipline and
navigation of the English fleet.
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adin refused, without some weighty compensation, to restore
the idols, or promote the idolatry, of the Christians; he asserted, with equal firmness, his religious and civil claim to the
sovereignty of Palestine; descanted on the importance and
sanctity of Jerusalem; and rejected all terms of the establishment, or partition of the Latins. The marriage which Richard
proposed, of his sister with the sultan’s brother, was defeated
by the difference of faith; the princess abhorred the embraces
of a Turk; and Adel, or Saphadin, would not easily renounce
a plurality of wives. A personal interview was declined by
Saladin, who alleged their mutual ignorance of each other’s
language; and the negotiation was managed with much art
and delay by their interpreters and envoys. The final agreement was equally disapproved by the zealots of both parties, by the Roman pontiff and the caliph of Bagdad. It was
stipulated that Jerusalem and the holy sepulchre should be
open, without tribute or vexation, to the pilgrimage of the
Latin Christians; that, after the demolition of Ascalon, they
should inclusively possess the sea-coast from Jaffa to Tyre;
that the count of Tripoli and the prince of Antioch should
be comprised in the truce; and that, during three years and
three months, all hostilities should cease. The principal chiefs
of the two armies swore to the observance of the treaty; but
the monarchs were satisfied with giving their word and their
right hand; and the royal majesty was excused from an oath,
which always implies some suspicion of falsehood and dishonor. Richard embarked for Europe, to seek a long captivity
and a premature grave; and the space of a few months concluded the life and glories of Saladin. The Orientals describe
his edifying death, which happened at Damascus; but they
seem ignorant of the equal distribution of his alms among
the three religions,91 or of the display of a shroud, instead
of a standard, to admonish the East of the instability of human greatness. The unity of empire was dissolved by his
91 Even Vertot (tom i p 251) adopts the foolish notion of the indifference of
Saladin, who professed the Koran with his last breath.
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death; his sons were oppressed by the stronger arm of their
uncle Saphadin; the hostile interests of the sultans of Egypt,
Damascus, and Aleppo,92 were again revived; and the Franks
or Latins stood and breathed, and hoped, in their fortresses
along the Syrian coast.
The noblest monument of a conqueror’s fame, and of the
terror which he inspired, is the Saladine tenth, a general tax
which was imposed on the laity, and even the clergy, of the
Latin church, for the service of the holy war. The practice was
too lucrative to expire with the occasion: and this tribute became the foundation of all the tithes and tenths on ecclesiastical benefices, which have been granted by the Roman pontiffs to Catholic sovereigns, or reserved for the immediate use
of the apostolic see.93 This pecuniary emolument must have
tended to increase the interest of the popes in the recovery of
Palestine: after the death of Saladin, they preached the crusade, by their epistles, their legates, and their missionaries;
and the accomplishment of the pious work might have been
expected from the zeal and talents of Innocent the Third.94
Under that young and ambitious priest, the successors of St.
Peter attained the full meridian of their greatness: and in a
reign of eighteen years, he exercised a despotic command
over the emperors and kings, whom he raised and deposed;
over the nations, whom an interdict of months or years deprived, for the offence of their rulers, of the exercise of Christian worship. In the council of the Lateran he acted as the
ecclesiastical, almost as the temporal, sovereign of the East
and West. It was at the feet of his legate that John of England
92 See the succession of the Ayoubites, in Abulpharagius, (Dynast p 277, &c,)
and the tables of M De Guignes, l’Art de Vérifier les Dates, and the Bibliothèque
Orientale.
93 Thomassin (Discipline de l’Eglise, tom iii p 311–374) has copiously treated
of the origin, abuses, and restrictions of these tenths A theory was started, but
not pursued, that they were rightfully due to the pope, a tenth of the Levite’s
tenth to the high priest, (Selden on Tithes; see his Works, vol iii p ii p 1083).
94 See the Gesta Innocentii III in Murat Script Rer Ital, (tom iii p 486–568).
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surrendered his crown; and Innocent may boast of the two
most signal triumphs over sense and humanity, the establishment of transubstantiation, and the origin of the inquisition.
At his voice, two crusades, the fourth and the fifth, were undertaken; but, except a king of Hungary, the princes of the
second order were at the head of the pilgrims: the forces were
inadequate to the design; nor did the effects correspond with
the hopes and wishes of the pope and the people. The fourth
crusade was diverted from Syria to Constantinople; and the
conquest of the Greek or Roman empire by the Latins will
form the proper and important subject of the next chapter. In
the fifth,95 two hundred thousand Franks were landed at the
eastern mouth of the Nile. They reasonably hoped that Palestine must be subdued in Egypt, the seat and storehouse of the
sultan; and, after a siege of sixteen months, the Moslems deplored the loss of Damietta. But the Christian army was ruined by the pride and insolence of the legate Pelagius, who,
in the pope’s name, assumed the character of general: the
sickly Franks were encompassed by the waters of the Nile
and the Oriental forces; and it was by the evacuation of Damietta that they obtained a safe retreat, some concessions for
the pilgrims, and the tardy restitution of the doubtful relic
of the true cross. The failure may in some measure be ascribed to the abuse and multiplication of the crusades, which
were preached at the same time against the Pagans of Livonia, the Moors of Spain, the Albigeois of France, and the kings
of Sicily of the Imperial family.96 In these meritorious ser95 See the vth crusade, and the siege of Damietta, in Jacobus à Vitriaco, (l
iii p 1125–1149, in the Gesta Dei of Bongarsius,) an eye-witness, Bernard Thesaurarius, (in Script Muratori, tom vii p 825–846, c 190–207,) a contemporary,
and Sanutus, (Secreta Fidel Crucis, l iii p xi c 4–9,) a diligent compiler; and
of the Arabians Abulpharagius, (Dynast p 294,) and the Extracts at the end of
Joinville, (p 533, 537, 540, 547, &c).
96 To those who took the cross against Mainfroy, the pope (AD 1255) granted
plenissimam peccatorum remissionem Fideles mirabantur quòd tantum eis
promitteret pro sanguine Christianorum effundendo quantum pro cruore infidelium aliquando, (Matthew Paris p 785) A high flight for the reason of the
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vices, the volunteers might acquire at home the same spiritual indulgence, and a larger measure of temporal rewards;
and even the popes, in their zeal against a domestic enemy,
were sometimes tempted to forget the distress of their Syrian
brethren. From the last age of the crusades they derived the
occasional command of an army and revenue; and some deep
reasoners have suspected that the whole enterprise, from the
first synod of Placentia, was contrived and executed by the
policy of Rome. The suspicion is not founded, either in nature or in fact. The successors of St. Peter appear to have
followed, rather than guided, the impulse of manners and
prejudice; without much foresight of the seasons, or cultivation of the soil, they gathered the ripe and spontaneous fruits
of the superstition of the times. They gathered these fruits
without toil or personal danger: in the council of the Lateran,
Innocent the Third declared an ambiguous resolution of animating the crusaders by his example; but the pilot of the sacred vessel could not abandon the helm; nor was Palestine
ever blessed with the presence of a Roman pontiff.97
The persons, the families, and estates of the pilgrims, were
under the immediate protection of the popes; and these spiritual patrons soon claimed the prerogative of directing their
operations, and enforcing, by commands and censures, the
accomplishment of their vow. Frederic the Second,98 the
grandson of Barbarossa, was successively the pupil, the enemy, and the victim of the church. At the age of twenty-one
years, and in obedience to his guardian Innocent the Third,
he assumed the cross; the same promise was repeated at his
xiiith century.
97 This simple idea is agreeable to the good sense of Mosheim, (Institut Hist
Ecclés p 332,) and the fine philosophy of Hume, (Hist of England, vol i p 330).
98 The original materials for the crusade of Frederic II may be drawn from
Richard de St Germano (in Muratori, Script Rerum Ital tom vii p 1002–1013)
and Matthew Paris, (p 286, 291, 300, 302, 304) The most rational moderns are
Fleury, (Hist Ecclés tom xvi,) Vertot, (Chevaliers de Malthe, tom i l iii,) Giannone, (Istoria Civile di Napoli, tom ii l xvi,) and Muratori, (Annali d’ Italia, tom
x).
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royal and imperial coronations; and his marriage with the
heiress of Jerusalem forever bound him to defend the kingdom of his son Conrad. But as Frederic advanced in age
and authority, he repented of the rash engagements of his
youth: his liberal sense and knowledge taught him to despise the phantoms of superstition and the crowns of Asia: he
no longer entertained the same reverence for the successors
of Innocent: and his ambition was occupied by the restoration of the Italian monarchy from Sicily to the Alps. But
the success of this project would have reduced the popes to
their primitive simplicity; and, after the delays and excuses
of twelve years, they urged the emperor, with entreaties and
threats, to fix the time and place of his departure for Palestine. In the harbors of Sicily and Apulia, he prepared a fleet
of one hundred galleys, and of one hundred vessels, that
were framed to transport and land two thousand five hundred knights, with their horses and attendants; his vassals of
Naples and Germany formed a powerful army; and the number of English crusaders was magnified to sixty thousand
by the report of fame. But the inevitable or affected slowness of these mighty preparations consumed the strength and
provisions of the more indigent pilgrims: the multitude was
thinned by sickness and desertion; and the sultry summer of
Calabria anticipated the mischiefs of a Syrian campaign. At
length the emperor hoisted sail at Brundusium, with a fleet
and army of forty thousand men: but he kept the sea no more
than three days; and his hasty retreat, which was ascribed
by his friends to a grievous indisposition, was accused by
his enemies as a voluntary and obstinate disobedience. For
suspending his vow was Frederic excommunicated by Gregory the Ninth; for presuming, the next year, to accomplish
his vow, he was again excommunicated by the same pope.99
While he served under the banner of the cross, a crusade was
preached against him in Italy; and after his return he was
99 Poor Muratori knows what to think, but knows not what to say: “Chino
qui il capo,” &c p 322.
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compelled to ask pardon for the injuries which he had suffered. The clergy and military orders of Palestine were previously instructed to renounce his communion and dispute his
commands; and in his own kingdom, the emperor was forced
to consent that the orders of the camp should be issued in the
name of God and of the Christian republic. Frederic entered
Jerusalem in triumph; and with his own hands (for no priest
would perform the office) he took the crown from the altar
of the holy sepulchre. But the patriarch cast an interdict on
the church which his presence had profaned; and the knights
of the hospital and temple informed the sultan how easily
he might be surprised and slain in his unguarded visit to the
River Jordan. In such a state of fanaticism and faction, victory
was hopeless, and defence was difficult; but the conclusion of
an advantageous peace may be imputed to the discord of the
Mahometans, and their personal esteem for the character of
Frederic. The enemy of the church is accused of maintaining
with the miscreants an intercourse of hospitality and friendship unworthy of a Christian; of despising the barrenness of
the land; and of indulging a profane thought, that if Jehovah
had seen the kingdom of Naples he never would have selected Palestine for the inheritance of his chosen people. Yet
Frederic obtained from the sultan the restitution of Jerusalem,
of Bethlem and Nazareth, of Tyre and Sidon; the Latins were
allowed to inhabit and fortify the city; an equal code of civil
and religious freedom was ratified for the sectaries of Jesus
and those of Mahomet; and, while the former worshipped at
the holy sepulchre, the latter might pray and preach in the
mosque of the temple,100 from whence the prophet undertook his nocturnal journey to heaven. The clergy deplored
this scandalous toleration; and the weaker Moslems were
gradually expelled; but every rational object of the crusades
was accomplished without bloodshed; the churches were re100 The clergy artfully confounded the mosque or church of the temple with
the holy sepulchre, and their wilful error has deceived both Vertot and Muratori.
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stored, the monasteries were replenished; and, in the space
of fifteen years, the Latins of Jerusalem exceeded the number
of six thousand. This peace and prosperity, for which they
were ungrateful to their benefactor, was terminated by the irruption of the strange and savage hordes of Carizmians.101
Flying from the arms of the Moguls, those shepherds102 of
the Caspian rolled headlong on Syria; and the union of the
Franks with the sultans of Aleppo, Hems, and Damascus,
was insufficient to stem the violence of the torrent. Whatever stood against them was cut off by the sword, or dragged
into captivity: the military orders were almost exterminated
in a single battle; and in the pillage of the city, in the profanation of the holy sepulchre, the Latins confess and regret the
modesty and discipline of the Turks and Saracens.
Of the seven crusades, the two last were undertaken by
Louis the Ninth, king of France; who lost his liberty in Egypt,
and his life on the coast of Africa. Twenty-eight years after
his death, he was canonized at Rome; and sixty-five miracles were readily found, and solemnly attested, to justify
the claim of the royal saint.103 The voice of history renders
a more honorable testimony, that he united the virtues of a
king, a hero, and a man; that his martial spirit was tempered
by the love of private and public justice; and that Louis was
the father of his people, the friend of his neighbors, and the
terror of the infidels. Superstition alone, in all the extent of
her baleful influence,104 corrupted his understanding and his
101 The irruption of the Carizmians, or Corasmins, is related by Matthew
Paris, (p 546, 547,) and by Joinville, Nangis, and the Arabians, (p 111, 112, 191,
192, 528, 530).
102 They were in alliance with Eyub, sultan of Syria Wilken vol vi p 630–M.
103 Read, if you can, the Life and Miracles of St Louis, by the confessor of
Queen Margaret, (p 291–523 Joinville, du Louvre).
104 He believed all that mother church taught, (Joinville, p 10,) but he cautioned Joinville against disputing with infidels “L’omme lay (said he in his old
language) quand il ot medire de la loi Crestienne, ne doit pas deffendre la loi
Crestienne ne mais que de l’espée, dequoi il doit donner parmi le ventre dedens, tant comme elle y peut entrer” (p 12).
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heart: his devotion stooped to admire and imitate the begging friars of Francis and Dominic: he pursued with blind
and cruel zeal the enemies of the faith; and the best of kings
twice descended from his throne to seek the adventures of
a spiritual knight-errant. A monkish historian would have
been content to applaud the most despicable part of his character; but the noble and gallant Joinville,105 who shared the
friendship and captivity of Louis, has traced with the pencil
of nature the free portrait of his virtues as well as of his failings. From this intimate knowledge we may learn to suspect
the political views of depressing their great vassals, which are
so often imputed to the royal authors of the crusades. Above
all the princes of the middle ages, Louis the Ninth successfully labored to restore the prerogatives of the crown; but it
was at home and not in the East, that he acquired for himself
and his posterity: his vow was the result of enthusiasm and
sickness; and if he were the promoter, he was likewise the victim, of his holy madness. For the invasion of Egypt, France
was exhausted of her troops and treasures; he covered the
sea of Cyprus with eighteen hundred sails; the most modest enumeration amounts to fifty thousand men; and, if we
might trust his own confession, as it is reported by Oriental
vanity, he disembarked nine thousand five hundred horse,
and one hundred and thirty thousand foot, who performed
their pilgrimage under the shadow of his power.106
In complete armor, the oriflamme waving before him,
Louis leaped foremost on the beach; and the strong city of
Damietta, which had cost his predecessors a siege of sixteen months, was abandoned on the first assault by the trem105 I have two editions of Joinville, the one (Paris, 1668) most valuable for the
observations of Ducange; the other (Paris, au Louvre, 1761) most precious for
the pure and authentic text, a MS of which has been recently discovered The
last edition proves that the history of St Louis was finished AD 1309, without
explaining, or even admiring, the age of the author, which must have exceeded
ninety years, (Preface, p x Observations de Ducange, p 17).
106 Joinville, p 32 Arabic Extracts, p 549 (Compare Wilken, vol vii p 94.)
–M.
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bling Moslems. But Damietta was the first and the last of
his conquests; and in the fifth and sixth crusades, the same
causes, almost on the same ground, were productive of similar calamities.107 After a ruinous delay, which introduced
into the camp the seeds of an epidemic disease, the Franks
advanced from the sea-coast towards the capital of Egypt,
and strove to surmount the unseasonable inundation of the
Nile, which opposed their progress. Under the eye of their
intrepid monarch, the barons and knights of France displayed their invincible contempt of danger and discipline:
his brother, the count of Artois, stormed with inconsiderate valor the town of Massoura; and the carrier pigeons announced to the inhabitants of Cairo that all was lost. But a
soldier, who afterwards usurped the sceptre, rallied the flying troops: the main body of the Christians was far behind
the vanguard; and Artois was overpowered and slain. A
shower of Greek fire was incessantly poured on the invaders;
the Nile was commanded by the Egyptian galleys, the open
country by the Arabs; all provisions were intercepted; each
day aggravated the sickness and famine; and about the same
time a retreat was found to be necessary and impracticable.
The Oriental writers confess, that Louis might have escaped,
if he would have deserted his subjects; he was made prisoner,
with the greatest part of his nobles; all who could not redeem
their lives by service or ransom were inhumanly massacred;
and the walls of Cairo were decorated with a circle of Christian heads.108 The king of France was loaded with chains; but
the generous victor, a great-grandson of the brother of Saladin, sent a robe of honor to his royal captive, and his deliver107 The last editors have enriched their Joinville with large and curious extracts from the Arabic historians, Macrizi, Abulfeda, &c See likewise Abulpharagius, (Dynast p 322–325,) who calls him by the corrupt name of Redefrans
Matthew Paris (p 683, 684) has described the rival folly of the French and English who fought and fell at Massoura.
108 Savary, in his agreeable Letters sur L’Egypte, has given a description of
Damietta, (tom i lettre xxiii p 274–290,) and a narrative of the exposition of St
Louis, (xxv p 306–350).
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ance, with that of his soldiers, was obtained by the restitution
of Damietta109 and the payment of four hundred thousand
pieces of gold. In a soft and luxurious climate, the degenerate children of the companions of Noureddin and Saladin
were incapable of resisting the flower of European chivalry:
they triumphed by the arms of their slaves or Mamalukes,
the hardy natives of Tartary, who at a tender age had been
purchased of the Syrian merchants, and were educated in
the camp and palace of the sultan. But Egypt soon afforded
a new example of the danger of prætorian bands; and the
rage of these ferocious animals, who had been let loose on
the strangers, was provoked to devour their benefactor. In
the pride of conquest, Touran Shaw, the last of his race, was
murdered by his Mamalukes; and the most daring of the assassins entered the chamber of the captive king, with drawn
cimeters, and their hands imbrued in the blood of their sultan. The firmness of Louis commanded their respect;110 their
avarice prevailed over cruelty and zeal; the treaty was accomplished; and the king of France, with the relics of his army,
was permitted to embark for Palestine. He wasted four years
within the walls of Acre, unable to visit Jerusalem, and unwilling to return without glory to his native country.
The memory of his defeat excited Louis, after sixteen years
of wisdom and repose, to undertake the seventh and last of
the crusades. His finances were restored, his kingdom was
enlarged; a new generation of warriors had arisen, and he
109 For the ransom of St Louis, a million of byzants was asked and granted; but
the sultan’s generosity reduced that sum to 800,000 byzants, which are valued
by Joinville at 400,000 French livres of his own time, and expressed by Matthew
Paris by 100,000 marks of silver, (Ducange, Dissertation xx sur Joinville).
110 The idea of the emirs to choose Louis for their sultan is seriously attested
by Joinville, (p 77, 78,) and does not appear to me so absurd as to M de Voltaire,
(Hist Générale, tom ii p 386, 387) The Mamalukes themselves were strangers,
rebels, and equals: they had felt his valor, they hoped his conversion; and such
a motion, which was not seconded, might be made, perhaps by a secret Christian in their tumultuous assembly (Wilken, vol vii p 257, thinks the proposition
could not have been made in earnest.) –M.
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advanced with fresh confidence at the head of six thousand
horse and thirty thousand foot. The loss of Antioch had provoked the enterprise; a wild hope of baptizing the king of
Tunis tempted him to steer for the African coast; and the report of an immense treasure reconciled his troops to the delay
of their voyage to the Holy Land. Instead of a proselyte, he
found a siege: the French panted and died on the burning
sands: St. Louis expired in his tent; and no sooner had he
closed his eyes, than his son and successor gave the signal of
the retreat.111 “It is thus,” says a lively writer, “that a Christian king died near the ruins of Carthage, waging war against
the sectaries of Mahomet, in a land to which Dido had introduced the deities of Syria.”112
A more unjust and absurd constitution cannot be devised
than that which condemns the natives of a country to perpetual servitude, under the arbitrary dominion of strangers
and slaves. Yet such has been the state of Egypt above five
hundred years. The most illustrious sultans of the Baharite
and Borgite dynasties113 were themselves promoted from the
Tartar and Circassian bands; and the four-and-twenty beys,
or military chiefs, have ever been succeeded, not by their
sons, but by their servants. They produce the great charter
of their liberties, the treaty of Selim the First with the republic:114 and the Othman emperor still accepts from Egypt a
111 See the expedition in the annals of St Louis, by William de Nangis, p 270–
287; and the Arabic extracts, p 545, 555, of the Louvre edition of Joinville.
112 Voltaire, Hist Générale, tom ii p 391.
113 The chronology of the two dynasties of Mamalukes, the Baharites, Turks or
Tartars of Kipzak, and the Borgites, Circassians, is given by Pocock (Prolegom
ad Abulpharag p 6–31) and De Guignes (tom i p 264–270;) their history from
Abulfeda, Macrizi, &c, to the beginning of the xvth century, by the same M De
Guignes, (tom iv p 110–328).
114 Savary, Lettres sur l’Egypte, tom ii lettre xv p 189–208 I much question
the authenticity of this copy; yet it is true, that Sultan Selim concluded a treaty
with the Circassians or Mamalukes of Egypt, and left them in possession of
arms, riches, and power See a new Abrégé de l’Histoire Ottomane, composed
in Egypt, and translated by M Digeon, (tom i p 55–58, Paris, 1781,) a curious,
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slight acknowledgment of tribute and subjection. With some
breathing intervals of peace and order, the two dynasties are
marked as a period of rapine and bloodshed:115 but their
throne, however shaken, reposed on the two pillars of discipline and valor: their sway extended over Egypt, Nubia,
Arabia, and Syria: their Mamalukes were multiplied from
eight hundred to twenty-five thousand horse; and their numbers were increased by a provincial militia of one hundred
and seven thousand foot, and the occasional aid of sixty-six
thousand Arabs.116 Princes of such power and spirit could
not long endure on their coast a hostile and independent nation; and if the ruin of the Franks was postponed about forty
years, they were indebted to the cares of an unsettled reign,
to the invasion of the Moguls, and to the occasional aid of
some warlike pilgrims. Among these, the English reader will
observe the name of our first Edward, who assumed the cross
in the lifetime of his father Henry. At the head of a thousand
soldiers the future conqueror of Wales and Scotland delivered Acre from a siege; marched as far as Nazareth with an
army of nine thousand men; emulated the fame of his uncle Richard; extorted, by his valor, a ten years’ truce;117 and
escaped, with a dangerous wound, from the dagger of a fa-
authentic, and national history.
115 Si totum quo regnum occupârunt tempus respicias, præsertim quod fini
propius, reperies illud bellis, pugnis, injuriis, ac rapinis refertum, (Al Jannabi,
apud Pocock, p 31) The reign of Mohammed (AD 1311–1341) affords a happy
exception, (De Guignes, tom iv p 208–210).
116 They are now reduced to 8500: but the expense of each Mamaluke may be
rated at a hundred louis: and Egypt groans under the avarice and insolence of
these strangers, (Voyages de Volney, tom i p 89–187).
117 Gibbon colors rather highly the success of Edward Wilken is more accurate
vol vii p 593, &c–M.
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natic assassin.118119 Antioch,120 whose situation had been less
exposed to the calamities of the holy war, was finally occupied and ruined by Bondocdar, or Bibars, sultan of Egypt and
Syria; the Latin principality was extinguished; and the first
seat of the Christian name was dispeopled by the slaughter of
seventeen, and the captivity of one hundred, thousand of her
inhabitants. The maritime towns of Laodicea, Gabala, Tripoli,
Berytus, Sidon, Tyre and Jaffa, and the stronger castles of the
Hospitallers and Templars, successively fell; and the whole
existence of the Franks was confined to the city and colony of
St. John of Acre, which is sometimes described by the more
classic title of Ptolemais.
After the loss of Jerusalem, Acre,121 which is distant about
seventy miles, became the metropolis of the Latin Christians,
and was adorned with strong and stately buildings, with
aqueducts, an artificial port, and a double wall. The population was increased by the incessant streams of pilgrims
and fugitives: in the pauses of hostility the trade of the East
and West was attracted to this convenient station; and the
market could offer the produce of every clime and the interpreters of every tongue. But in this conflux of nations, every
vice was propagated and practised: of all the disciples of Jesus and Mahomet, the male and female inhabitants of Acre
were esteemed the most corrupt; nor could the abuse of religion be corrected by the discipline of law. The city had many
sovereigns, and no government. The kings of Jerusalem and
118 See Carte’s History of England, vol ii p 165–175, and his original authors,
Thomas Wikes and Walter Hemingford, (l iii c 34, 35,) in Gale’s Collection, (tom
ii p 97, 589–592) They are both ignorant of the princess Eleanor’s piety in sucking the poisoned wound, and saving her husband at the risk of her own life.
119 The sultan Bibars was concerned in this attempt at assassination Wilken,
vol vii p 602 Ptolemæus Lucensis is the earliest authority for the devotion of
Eleanora Ibid 605–M.
120 Sanutus, Secret Fidelium Crucis, 1 iii p xii c 9, and De Guignes, Hist des
Huns, tom iv p 143, from the Arabic historians.
121 The state of Acre is represented in all the chronicles of te times, and most
accurately in John Villani, l vii c 144, in Muratori, Scriptores Rerum Italicarum,
tom xiii 337, 338.
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Cyprus, of the house of Lusignan, the princes of Antioch, the
counts of Tripoli and Sidon, the great masters of the hospital,
the temple, and the Teutonic order, the republics of Venice,
Genoa, and Pisa, the pope’s legate, the kings of France and
England, assumed an independent command: seventeen tribunals exercised the power of life and death; every criminal
was protected in the adjacent quarter; and the perpetual jealousy of the nations often burst forth in acts of violence and
blood. Some adventurers, who disgraced the ensign of the
cross, compensated their want of pay by the plunder of the
Mahometan villages: nineteen Syrian merchants, who traded
under the public faith, were despoiled and hanged by the
Christians; and the denial of satisfaction justified the arms
of the sultan Khalil. He marched against Acre, at the head
of sixty thousand horse and one hundred and forty thousand
foot: his train of artillery (if I may use the word) was numerous and weighty: the separate timbers of a single engine were
transported in one hundred wagons; and the royal historian
Abulfeda, who served with the troops of Hamah, was himself
a spectator of the holy war. Whatever might be the vices of
the Franks, their courage was rekindled by enthusiasm and
despair; but they were torn by the discord of seventeen chiefs,
and overwhelmed on all sides by the powers of the sultan.
After a siege of thirty three days, the double wall was forced
by the Moslems; the principal tower yielded to their engines;
the Mamalukes made a general assault; the city was stormed;
and death or slavery was the lot of sixty thousand Christians.
The convent, or rather fortress, of the Templars resisted three
days longer; but the great master was pierced with an arrow;
and, of five hundred knights, only ten were left alive, less
happy than the victims of the sword, if they lived to suffer on
a scaffold, in the unjust and cruel proscription of the whole
order. The king of Jerusalem, the patriarch and the great master of the hospital, effected their retreat to the shore; but the
sea was rough, the vessels were insufficient; and great numbers of the fugitives were drowned before they could reach
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PART III
the Isle of Cyprus, which might comfort Lusignan for the loss
of Palestine. By the command of the sultan, the churches and
fortifications of the Latin cities were demolished: a motive of
avarice or fear still opened the holy sepulchre to some devout
and defenceless pilgrims; and a mournful and solitary silence
prevailed along the coast which had so long resounded with
the world’s debate.122
122 See the final expulsion of the Franks, in Sanutus, l iii p xii c 11–22; Abulfeda, Macrizi, &c, in De Guignes, tom iv p 162, 164; and Vertot, tom i l iii p
307–428 (After these chapters of Gibbon, the masterly prize composition, “Essai sur ‘Influence des Croisades sur l’Europe,” par A H L Heeren: traduit de
l’Allemand par Charles Villars, Paris, 1808,’ or the original German, in Heeren’s
“Vermischte Schriften,” may be read with great advantage.) –M.
55
Chapter LX
T HE F OURTH C RUSADE
Part I
Schism Of The Greeks And Latins.–
State Of Constantinople.–
Revolt Of The Bulgarians.–
Isaac Angelus Dethroned By His Brother Alexius.–
Origin Of The Fourth Crusade.–
Alliance Of The French And Venetians With The
Son Of Isaac.–
Their Naval Expedition To Constantinople.–
The Two Sieges And Final Conquest Of The City
By The Latins.
restoration of the Western empire by Charlemagne was
T speedily
followed by the separation of the Greek and
HE
Latin churches.123 A religious and national animosity still
divides the two largest communions of the Christian world;
and the schism of Constantinople, by alienating her most useful allies, and provoking her most dangerous enemies, has
precipitated the decline and fall of the Roman empire in the
East.
In the course of the present History, the aversion of the
Greeks for the Latins has been often visible and conspicuous.
It was originally derived from the disdain of servitude, inflamed, after the time of Constantine, by the pride of equality or dominion; and finally exasperated by the preference
which their rebellious subjects had given to the alliance of the
Franks. In every age the Greeks were proud of their superiority in profane and religious knowledge: they had first received the light of Christianity; they had pronounced the decrees of the seven general councils; they alone possessed the
123 In the successive centuries, from the ixth to the xviiith, Mosheim traces
the schism of the Greeks with learning, clearness, and impartiality; the filioque
(Institut Hist Ecclés p 277,) Leo III p 303 Photius, p 307, 308 Michael Cerularius,
p 370, 371, &c.
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CHAPTER LX
PART I
language of Scripture and philosophy; nor should the Barbarians, immersed in the darkness of the West,124 presume
to argue on the high and mysterious questions of theological science. Those Barbarians despised in then turn the restless and subtile levity of the Orientals, the authors of every
heresy; and blessed their own simplicity, which was content
to hold the tradition of the apostolic church. Yet in the seventh century, the synods of Spain, and afterwards of France,
improved or corrupted the Nicene creed, on the mysterious
subject of the third person of the Trinity.125 In the long controversies of the East, the nature and generation of the Christ
had been scrupulously defined; and the well-known relation
of father and son seemed to convey a faint image to the human mind. The idea of birth was less analogous to the Holy
Spirit, who, instead of a divine gift or attribute, was considered by the Catholics as a substance, a person, a god; he was
not begotten, but in the orthodox style he proceeded. Did he
proceed from the Father alone, perhaps by the Son? or from
the Father and the Son? The first of these opinions was asserted by the Greeks, the second by the Latins; and the addition to the Nicene creed of the word filioque, kindled the flame
of discord between the Oriental and the Gallic churches. In
the origin of the disputes the Roman pontiffs affected a character of neutrality and moderation:126 they condemned the
innovation, but they acquiesced in the sentiment, of their
124 ’‘AndreV dussebeiV kai apotropaioi, andreV ek sktouV anadunteV, thV
gar ‘Esperiou moiraV uphrcon gennhmata, (Phot Epist p 47, edit Montacut)
The Oriental patriarch continues to apply the images of thunder, earthquake,
hail, wild boar, precursors of Antichrist, &c, &c.
125 The mysterious subject of the procession of the Holy Ghost is discussed in
the historical, theological, and controversial sense, or nonsense, by the Jesuit
Petavius (Dogmata Theologica, tom ii l vii p 362–440).
126 Before the shrine of St Peter he placed two shields of the weight of 94 1/2
pounds of pure silver; on which he inscribed the text of both creeds, (utroque
symbolo,) pro amore et cautelâ orthodoxæ fidei, (Anastas in Leon III in Muratori, tom iii pars i p 208) His language most clearly proves, that neither the
filioque, nor the Athanasian creed were received at Rome about the year 830.
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Transalpine brethren: they seemed desirous of casting a veil
of silence and charity over the superfluous research; and in
the correspondence of Charlemagne and Leo the Third, the
pope assumes the liberality of a statesman, and the prince
descends to the passions and prejudices of a priest.127 But
the orthodoxy of Rome spontaneously obeyed the impulse
of the temporal policy; and the filioque, which Leo wished
to erase, was transcribed in the symbol and chanted in the
liturgy of the Vatican. The Nicene and Athanasian creeds are
held as the Catholic faith, without which none can be saved;
and both Papists and Protestants must now sustain and return the anathemas of the Greeks, who deny the procession of
the Holy Ghost from the Son, as well as from the Father. Such
articles of faith are not susceptible of treaty; but the rules of
discipline will vary in remote and independent churches; and
the reason, even of divines, might allow, that the difference is
inevitable and harmless. The craft or superstition of Rome
has imposed on her priests and deacons the rigid obligation
of celibacy; among the Greeks it is confined to the bishops;
the loss is compensated by dignity or annihilated by age; and
the parochial clergy, the papas, enjoy the conjugal society of
the wives whom they have married before their entrance into
holy orders. A question concerning the Azyms was fiercely
debated in the eleventh century, and the essence of the Eucharist was supposed in the East and West to depend on the
use of leavened or unleavened bread. Shall I mention in a serious history the furious reproaches that were urged against
the Latins, who for a long while remained on the defensive?
They neglected to abstain, according to the apostolical decree,
from things strangled, and from blood: they fasted (a Jewish
observance!) on the Saturday of each week: during the first
127 The Missi of Charlemagne pressed him to declare, that all who rejected
the filioque, or at least the doctrine, must be damned All, replies the pope, are
not capable of reaching the altiora mysteria qui potuerit, et non voluerit, salvus
esse non potest, (Collect Concil tom ix p 277–286) The potuerit would leave a
large loophole of salvation!.
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PART I
week of Lent they permitted the use of milk and cheese;128
their infirm monks were indulged in the taste of flesh; and animal grease was substituted for the want of vegetable oil: the
holy chrism or unction in baptism was reserved to the episcopal order: the bishops, as the bridegrooms of their churches,
were decorated with rings; their priests shaved their faces,
and baptized by a single immersion. Such were the crimes
which provoked the zeal of the patriarchs of Constantinople;
and which were justified with equal zeal by the doctors of the
Latin church.129
Bigotry and national aversion are powerful magnifiers of
every object of dispute; but the immediate cause of the
schism of the Greeks may be traced in the emulation of the
leading prelates, who maintained the supremacy of the old
metropolis superior to all, and of the reigning capital, inferior to none, in the Christian world. About the middle of
the ninth century, Photius,130 an ambitious layman, the captain of the guards and principal secretary, was promoted by
merit and favor to the more desirable office of patriarch of
Constantinople. In science, even ecclesiastical science, he surpassed the clergy of the age; and the purity of his morals has
never been impeached: but his ordination was hasty, his rise
was irregular; and Ignatius, his abdicated predecessor, was
yet supported by the public compassion and the obstinacy of
his adherents. They appealed to the tribunal of Nicholas the
First, one of the proudest and most aspiring of the Roman
pontiffs, who embraced the welcome opportunity of judging
128 In France, after some harsher laws, the ecclesiastical discipline is now relaxed: milk, cheese, and butter, are become a perpetual, and eggs an annual,
indulgence in Lent, (Vie privée des François, tom ii p 27–38).
129 The original monuments of the schism, of the charges of the Greeks against
the Latins, are deposited in the epistles of Photius, (Epist Encyclica, ii p 47–61,)
and of Michael Cerularius, (Canisii Antiq Lectiones, tom iii p i p 281–324, edit
Basnage, with the prolix answer of Cardinal Humbert).
130 The xth volume of the Venice edition of the Councils contains all the acts
of the synods, and history of Photius: they are abridged, with a faint tinge of
prejudice or prudence, by Dupin and Fleury.
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CHAPTER LX
PART I
and condemning his rival of the East. Their quarrel was embittered by a conflict of jurisdiction over the king and nation
of the Bulgarians; nor was their recent conversion to Christianity of much avail to either prelate, unless he could number the proselytes among the subjects of his power. With the
aid of his court the Greek patriarch was victorious; but in
the furious contest he deposed in his turn the successor of
St. Peter, and involved the Latin church in the reproach of
heresy and schism. Photius sacrificed the peace of the world
to a short and precarious reign: he fell with his patron, the
Cæsar Bardas; and Basil the Macedonian performed an act
of justice in the restoration of Ignatius, whose age and dignity had not been sufficiently respected. From his monastery,
or prison, Photius solicited the favor of the emperor by pathetic complaints and artful flattery; and the eyes of his rival were scarcely closed, when he was again restored to the
throne of Constantinople. After the death of Basil he experienced the vicissitudes of courts and the ingratitude of a
royal pupil: the patriarch was again deposed, and in his last
solitary hours he might regret the freedom of a secular and
studious life. In each revolution, the breath, the nod, of the
sovereign had been accepted by a submissive clergy; and a
synod of three hundred bishops was always prepared to hail
the triumph, or to stigmatize the fall, of the holy, or the execrable, Photius.131 By a delusive promise of succor or reward, the popes were tempted to countenance these various
proceedings; and the synods of Constantinople were ratified
by their epistles or legates. But the court and the people, Ignatius and Photius, were equally adverse to their claims; their
ministers were insulted or imprisoned; the procession of the
Holy Ghost was forgotten; Bulgaria was forever annexed to
131 The synod of Constantinople, held in the year 869, is the viiith of the
general councils, the last assembly of the East which is recognized by the Roman church She rejects the synods of Constantinople of the years 867 and 879,
which were, however, equally numerous and noisy; but they were favorable to
Photius.
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CHAPTER LX
PART I
the Byzantine throne; and the schism was prolonged by their
rigid censure of all the multiplied ordinations of an irregular
patriarch. The darkness and corruption of the tenth century
suspended the intercourse, without reconciling the minds, of
the two nations. But when the Norman sword restored the
churches of Apulia to the jurisdiction of Rome, the departing
flock was warned, by a petulant epistle of the Greek patriarch, to avoid and abhor the errors of the Latins. The rising majesty of Rome could no longer brook the insolence of
a rebel; and Michael Cerularius was excommunicated in the
heart of Constantinople by the pope’s legates. Shaking the
dust from their feet, they deposited on the altar of St. Sophia
a direful anathema,132 which enumerates the seven mortal
heresies of the Greeks, and devotes the guilty teachers, and
their unhappy sectaries, to the eternal society of the devil and
his angels. According to the emergencies of the church and
state, a friendly correspondence was some times resumed;
the language of charity and concord was sometimes affected;
but the Greeks have never recanted their errors; the popes
have never repealed their sentence; and from this thunderbolt we may date the consummation of the schism. It was
enlarged by each ambitious step of the Roman pontiffs: the
emperors blushed and trembled at the ignominious fate of
their royal brethren of Germany; and the people were scandalized by the temporal power and military life of the Latin
clergy.133
The aversion of the Greeks and Latins was nourished and
manifested in the three first expeditions to the Holy Land.
Alexius Comnenus contrived the absence at least of the
formidable pilgrims: his successors, Manuel and Isaac Angelus, conspired with the Moslems for the ruin of the greatest
132 See
this anathema in the Councils, tom xi p 1457–1460.
Comnena (Alexiad, l i p 31–33) represents the abhorrence, not only
of the church, but of the palace, for Gregory VII, the popes and the Latin communion The style of Cinnamus and Nicetas is still more vehement Yet how calm
is the voice of history compared with that of polemics!.
133 Anna
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PART I
princes of the Franks; and their crooked and malignant policy was seconded by the active and voluntary obedience of
every order of their subjects. Of this hostile temper, a large
portion may doubtless be ascribed to the difference of language, dress, and manners, which severs and alienates the
nations of the globe. The pride, as well as the prudence, of
the sovereign was deeply wounded by the intrusion of foreign armies, that claimed a right of traversing his dominions, and passing under the walls of his capital: his subjects
were insulted and plundered by the rude strangers of the
West: and the hatred of the pusillanimous Greeks was sharpened by secret envy of the bold and pious enterprises of the
Franks. But these profane causes of national enmity were fortified and inflamed by the venom of religious zeal. Instead of
a kind embrace, a hospitable reception from their Christian
brethren of the East, every tongue was taught to repeat the
names of schismatic and heretic, more odious to an orthodox
ear than those of pagan and infidel: instead of being loved
for the general conformity of faith and worship, they were
abhorred for some rules of discipline, some questions of theology, in which themselves or their teachers might differ from
the Oriental church. In the crusade of Louis the Seventh, the
Greek clergy washed and purified the altars which had been
defiled by the sacrifice of a French priest. The companions
of Frederic Barbarossa deplore the injuries which they endured, both in word and deed, from the peculiar rancor of
the bishops and monks. Their prayers and sermons excited
the people against the impious Barbarians; and the patriarch
is accused of declaring, that the faithful might obtain the redemption of all their sins by the extirpation of the schismatics.134 An enthusiast, named Dorotheus, alarmed the fears,
134 His anonymous historian (de Expedit Asiat Fred I in Canisii Lection Antiq
tom iii pars ii p 511, edit Basnage) mentions the sermons of the Greek patriarch,
quomodo Græcis injunxerat in remissionem peccatorum peregrinos occidere et
delere de terra Tagino observes, (in Scriptores Freher tom i p 409, edit Struv,)
Græci hæreticos nos appellant: clerici et monachi dictis et factis persequun-
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CHAPTER LX
PART I
and restored the confidence, of the emperor, by a prophetic
assurance, that the German heretic, after assaulting the gate
of Blachernes, would be made a signal example of the divine
vengeance. The passage of these mighty armies were rare
and perilous events; but the crusades introduced a frequent
and familiar intercourse between the two nations, which enlarged their knowledge without abating their prejudices. The
wealth and luxury of Constantinople demanded the productions of every climate these imports were balanced by the art
and labor of her numerous inhabitants; her situation invites
the commerce of the world; and, in every period of her existence, that commerce has been in the hands of foreigners.
After the decline of Amalphi, the Venetians, Pisans, and Genoese, introduced their factories and settlements into the capital of the empire: their services were rewarded with honors
and immunities; they acquired the possession of lands and
houses; their families were multiplied by marriages with the
natives; and, after the toleration of a Mahometan mosque, it
was impossible to interdict the churches of the Roman rite.135
The two wives of Manuel Comnenus136 were of the race of
the Franks: the first, a sister-in-law of the emperor Conrad;
the second, a daughter of the prince of Antioch: he obtained
for his son Alexius a daughter of Philip Augustus, king of
France; and he bestowed his own daughter on a marquis of
Montferrat, who was educated and dignified in the palace
of Constantinople. The Greek encountered the arms, and
aspired to the empire, of the West: he esteemed the valor,
tur We may add the declaration of the emperor Baldwin fifteen years afterwards: Hæc est (gens) quæ Latinos omnes non hominum nomine, sed canum
dignabatur; quorum sanguinem effundere penè inter merita reputabant, (Gesta
Innocent III, c 92, in Muratori, Script Rerum Italicarum, tom iii pars i p 536)
There may be some exaggeration, but it was as effectual for the action and reaction of hatred.
135 See Anna Comnena, (Alexiad, l vi p 161, 162,) and a remarkable passage
of Nicetas, (in Manuel, l v c 9,) who observes of the Venetians, kata smhnh kai
jratriaV thn Kwnstantinou polin thV oikeiaV hllaxanto, &c.
136 Ducange, Fam Byzant p 186, 187.
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PART I
and trusted the fidelity, of the Franks;137 their military talents
were unfitly recompensed by the lucrative offices of judges
and treasures; the policy of Manuel had solicited the alliance
of the pope; and the popular voice accused him of a partial
bias to the nation and religion of the Latins.138 During his
reign, and that of his successor Alexius, they were exposed
at Constantinople to the reproach of foreigners, heretics, and
favorites; and this triple guilt was severely expiated in the
tumult, which announced the return and elevation of Andronicus.139 The people rose in arms: from the Asiatic shore
the tyrant despatched his troops and galleys to assist the national revenge; and the hopeless resistance of the strangers
served only to justify the rage, and sharpen the daggers, of
the assassins. Neither age, nor sex, nor the ties of friendship or kindred, could save the victims of national hatred,
and avarice, and religious zeal; the Latins were slaughtered
in their houses and in the streets; their quarter was reduced
to ashes; the clergy were burnt in their churches, and the
sick in their hospitals; and some estimate may be formed of
the slain from the clemency which sold above four thousand
Christians in perpetual slavery to the Turks. The priests and
monks were the loudest and most active in the destruction
of the schismatics; and they chanted a thanksgiving to the
Lord, when the head of a Roman cardinal, the pope’s legate,
was severed from his body, fastened to the tail of a dog, and
137 Nicetas in Manuel l vii c 2 Regnante enim (Manuele) apud eum tantam Latinus populus repererat gratiam ut neglectis Græculis suis tanquam viris mollibus et effminatis, solis Latinis grandia committeret negotia erga eos profusâ
liberalitate abundabat ex omni orbe ad eum tanquam ad benefactorem nobiles
et ignobiles concurrebant Willelm Tyr xxii c 10.
138 The suspicions of the Greeks would have been confirmed, if they had seen
the political epistles of Manuel to Pope Alexander III, the enemy of his enemy
Frederic I, in which the emperor declares his wish of uniting the Greeks and
Latins as one flock under one shepherd, &c (See Fleury, Hist Ecclés tom xv p
187, 213, 243).
139 See the Greek and Latin narratives in Nicetas (in Alexio Comneno, c 10)
and William of Tyre, (l xxii c 10, 11, 12, 13;) the first soft and concise, the second
loud, copious, and tragical.
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CHAPTER LX
PART I
dragged, with savage mockery, through the city. The more
diligent of the strangers had retreated, on the first alarm, to
their vessels, and escaped through the Hellespont from the
scene of blood. In their flight, they burnt and ravaged two
hundred miles of the sea-coast; inflicted a severe revenge on
the guiltless subjects of the empire; marked the priests and
monks as their peculiar enemies; and compensated, by the accumulation of plunder, the loss of their property and friends.
On their return, they exposed to Italy and Europe the wealth
and weakness, the perfidy and malice, of the Greeks, whose
vices were painted as the genuine characters of heresy and
schism. The scruples of the first crusaders had neglected the
fairest opportunities of securing, by the possession of Constantinople, the way to the Holy Land: domestic revolution
invited, and almost compelled, the French and Venetians to
achieve the conquest of the Roman empire of the East.
In the series of the Byzantine princes, I have exhibited the
hypocrisy and ambition, the tyranny and fall, of Andronicus, the last male of the Comnenian family who reigned at
Constantinople. The revolution, which cast him headlong
from the throne, saved and exalted Isaac Angelus,140 who descended by the females from the same Imperial dynasty. The
successor of a second Nero might have found it an easy task
to deserve the esteem and affection of his subjects; they sometimes had reason to regret the administration of Andronicus.
The sound and vigorous mind of the tyrant was capable of
discerning the connection between his own and the public interest; and while he was feared by all who could inspire him
with fear, the unsuspected people, and the remote provinces,
might bless the inexorable justice of their master. But his successor was vain and jealous of the supreme power, which he
wanted courage and abilities to exercise: his vices were per140 The history of the reign of Isaac Angelus is composed, in three books, by
the senator Nicetas, (p 228–290;) and his offices of logothete, or principal secretary, and judge of the veil or palace, could not bribe the impartiality of the
historian He wrote, it is true, after the fall and death of his benefactor.
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PART I
nicious, his virtues (if he possessed any virtues) were useless,
to mankind; and the Greeks, who imputed their calamities to
his negligence, denied him the merit of any transient or accidental benefits of the times. Isaac slept on the throne, and was
awakened only by the sound of pleasure: his vacant hours
were amused by comedians and buffoons, and even to these
buffoons the emperor was an object of contempt: his feasts
and buildings exceeded the examples of royal luxury: the
number of his eunuchs and domestics amounted to twenty
thousand; and a daily sum of four thousand pounds of silver
would swell to four millions sterling the annual expense of
his household and table. His poverty was relieved by oppression; and the public discontent was inflamed by equal abuses
in the collection, and the application, of the revenue. While
the Greeks numbered the days of their servitude, a flattering
prophet, whom he rewarded with the dignity of patriarch, assured him of a long and victorious reign of thirty-two years;
during which he should extend his sway to Mount Libanus,
and his conquests beyond the Euphrates. But his only step
towards the accomplishment of the prediction was a splendid and scandalous embassy to Saladin,141 to demand the
restitution of the holy sepulchre, and to propose an offensive and defensive league with the enemy of the Christian
name. In these unworthy hands, of Isaac and his brother,
the remains of the Greek empire crumbled into dust. The
Island of Cyprus, whose name excites the ideas of elegance
and pleasure, was usurped by his namesake, a Comnenian
prince; and by a strange concatenation of events, the sword
of our English Richard bestowed that kingdom on the house
of Lusignan, a rich compensation for the loss of Jerusalem.
The honor of the monarchy and the safety of the capital
were deeply wounded by the revolt of the Bulgarians and
141 See Bohadin, Vit Saladin p 129–131, 226, vers Schultens The ambassador of
Isaac was equally versed in the Greek, French, and Arabic languages; a rare instance in those times His embassies were received with honor, dismissed without effect, and reported with scandal in the West.
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Walachians. Since the victory of the second Basil, they had
supported, above a hundred and seventy years, the loose dominion of the Byzantine princes; but no effectual measures
had been adopted to impose the yoke of laws and manners
on these savage tribes. By the command of Isaac, their sole
means of subsistence, their flocks and herds, were driven
away, to contribute towards the pomp of the royal nuptials;
and their fierce warriors were exasperated by the denial of
equal rank and pay in the military service. Peter and Asan,
two powerful chiefs, of the race of the ancient kings,142 asserted their own rights and the national freedom; their dæmoniac impostors proclaimed to the crowd, that their glorious patron St. Demetrius had forever deserted the cause of
the Greeks; and the conflagration spread from the banks of
the Danube to the hills of Macedonia and Thrace. After some
faint efforts, Isaac Angelus and his brother acquiesced in their
independence; and the Imperial troops were soon discouraged by the bones of their fellow-soldiers, that were scattered
along the passes of Mount Hæmus. By the arms and policy
of John or Joannices, the second kingdom of Bulgaria was
firmly established. The subtle Barbarian sent an embassy to
Innocent the Third, to acknowledge himself a genuine son of
Rome in descent and religion,143 and humbly received from
the pope the license of coining money, the royal title, and
a Latin archbishop or patriarch. The Vatican exulted in the
spiritual conquest of Bulgaria, the first object of the schism;
and if the Greeks could have preserved the prerogatives of
the church, they would gladly have resigned the rights of the
142 Ducange, Familiæ, Dalmaticæ, p 318, 319, 320 The original correspondence
of the Bulgarian king and the Roman pontiff is inscribed in the Gesta Innocent
III c 66–82, p 513–525.
143 The pope acknowledges his pedigree, a nobili urbis Romæ prosapiâ genitores tui originem traxerunt This tradition, and the strong resemblance of the
Latin and Walachian idioms, is explained by M D’Anville, (Etats de l’Europe,
p 258–262) The Italian colonies of the Dacia of Trajan were swept away by the
tide of emigration from the Danube to the Volga, and brought back by another
wave from the Volga to the Danube Possible, but strange!.
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monarchy.
The Bulgarians were malicious enough to pray for the long
life of Isaac Angelus, the surest pledge of their freedom and
prosperity. Yet their chiefs could involve in the same indiscriminate contempt the family and nation of the emperor.
“In all the Greeks,” said Asan to his troops, “the same climate, and character, and education, will be productive of the
same fruits. Behold my lance,” continued the warrior, “and
the long streamers that float in the wind. They differ only
in color; they are formed of the same silk, and fashioned by
the same workman; nor has the stripe that is stained in purple any superior price or value above its fellows.”144 Several
of these candidates for the purple successively rose and fell
under the empire of Isaac; a general, who had repelled the
fleets of Sicily, was driven to revolt and ruin by the ingratitude of the prince; and his luxurious repose was disturbed
by secret conspiracies and popular insurrections. The emperor was saved by accident, or the merit of his servants: he
was at length oppressed by an ambitious brother, who, for
the hope of a precarious diadem, forgot the obligations of
nature, of loyalty, and of friendship.145 While Isaac in the
Thracian valleys pursued the idle and solitary pleasures of
the chase, his brother, Alexius Angelus, was invested with
the purple, by the unanimous suffrage of the camp; the capital and the clergy subscribed to their choice; and the vanity
of the new sovereign rejected the name of his fathers for the
lofty and royal appellation of the Comnenian race. On the despicable character of Isaac I have exhausted the language of
contempt, and can only add, that, in a reign of eight years, the
144 This parable is in the best savage style; but I wish the Walach had not introduced the classic name of Mysians, the experiment of the magnet or loadstone,
and the passage of an old comic poet, (Nicetas in Alex Comneno, l i p 299, 300).
145 The Latins aggravate the ingratitude of Alexius, by supposing that he had
been released by his brother Isaac from Turkish captivity This pathetic tale had
doubtless been repeated at Venice and Zara but I do not readily discover its
grounds in the Greek historians.
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baser Alexius146 was supported by the masculine vices of his
wife Euphrosyne. The first intelligence of his fall was conveyed to the late emperor by the hostile aspect and pursuit
of the guards, no longer his own: he fled before them above
fifty miles, as far as Stagyra, in Macedonia; but the fugitive,
without an object or a follower, was arrested, brought back to
Constantinople, deprived of his eyes, and confined in a lonesome tower, on a scanty allowance of bread and water. At
the moment of the revolution, his son Alexius, whom he educated in the hope of empire, was twelve years of age. He was
spared by the usurper, and reduced to attend his triumph
both in peace and war; but as the army was encamped on the
sea-shore, an Italian vessel facilitated the escape of the royal
youth; and, in the disguise of a common sailor, he eluded the
search of his enemies, passed the Hellespont, and found a secure refuge in the Isle of Sicily. After saluting the threshold of
the apostles, and imploring the protection of Pope Innocent
the Third, Alexius accepted the kind invitation of his sister
Irene, the wife of Philip of Swabia, king of the Romans. But
in his passage through Italy, he heard that the flower of Western chivalry was assembled at Venice for the deliverance of
the Holy Land; and a ray of hope was kindled in his bosom,
that their invincible swords might be employed in his father’s
restoration.
About ten or twelve years after the loss of Jerusalem, the
nobles of France were again summoned to the holy war by
the voice of a third prophet, less extravagant, perhaps, than
Peter the hermit, but far below St. Bernard in the merit of
an orator and a statesman. An illiterate priest of the neighborhood of Paris, Fulk of Neuilly,147 forsook his parochial
duty, to assume the more flattering character of a popular
and itinerant missionary. The fame of his sanctity and mir146 See the reign of Alexius Angelus, or Comnenus, in the three books of Nicetas, p 291–352.
147 See Fleury, Hist Ecclés tom xvi p 26, &c, and Villehardouin, No 1, with the
observations of Ducange, which I always mean to quote with the original text.
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acles was spread over the land; he declaimed, with severity
and vehemence, against the vices of the age; and his sermons,
which he preached in the streets of Paris, converted the robbers, the usurers, the prostitutes, and even the doctors and
scholars of the university. No sooner did Innocent the Third
ascend the chair of St. Peter, than he proclaimed in Italy, Germany, and France, the obligation of a new crusade.148 The
eloquent pontiff described the ruin of Jerusalem, the triumph
of the Pagans, and the shame of Christendom; his liberality
proposed the redemption of sins, a plenary indulgence to all
who should serve in Palestine, either a year in person, or two
years by a substitute;149 and among his legates and orators
who blew the sacred trumpet, Fulk of Neuilly was the loudest and most successful. The situation of the principal monarchs was averse to the pious summons. The emperor Frederic
the Second was a child; and his kingdom of Germany was
disputed by the rival houses of Brunswick and Swabia, the
memorable factions of the Guelphs and Ghibelines. Philip
Augustus of France had performed, and could not be persuaded to renew, the perilous vow; but as he was not less
ambitious of praise than of power, he cheerfully instituted
a perpetual fund for the defence of the Holy Land Richard
of England was satiated with the glory and misfortunes of
his first adventure; and he presumed to deride the exhortations of Fulk of Neuilly, who was not abashed in the presence of kings. “You advise me,” said Plantagenet, “to dismiss
my three daughters, pride, avarice, and incontinence: I bequeath them to the most deserving; my pride to the knights
templars, my avarice to the monks of Cisteaux, and my in148 The contemporary life of Pope Innocent III, published by Baluze and Muratori, (Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, tom iii pars i p 486–568), is most valuable
for the important and original documents which are inserted in the text The
bull of the crusade may be read, c 84, 85.
149 Por-ce que cil pardon, fut issi gran, si s’en esmeurent mult li cuers des
genz, et mult s’en croisierent, porce que li pardons ere si gran Villehardouin,
No 1 Our philosophers may refine on the causes of the crusades, but such were
the genuine feelings of a French knight.
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continence to the prelates.” But the preacher was heard and
obeyed by the great vassals, the princes of the second order;
and Theobald, or Thibaut, count of Champagne, was the foremost in the holy race. The valiant youth, at the age of twentytwo years, was encouraged by the domestic examples of his
father, who marched in the second crusade, and of his elder
brother, who had ended his days in Palestine with the title of
King of Jerusalem; two thousand two hundred knights owed
service and homage to his peerage;150 the nobles of Champagne excelled in all the exercises of war;151 and, by his marriage with the heiress of Navarre, Thibaut could draw a band
of hardy Gascons from either side of the Pyrenæan mountains. His companion in arms was Louis, count of Blois and
Chartres; like himself of regal lineage, for both the princes
were nephews, at the same time, of the kings of France and
England. In a crowd of prelates and barons, who imitated
their zeal, I distinguish the birth and merit of Matthew of
Montmorency; the famous Simon of Montfort, the scourge of
the Albigeois; and a valiant noble, Jeffrey of Villehardouin,152
marshal of Champagne,153 who has condescended, in the
150 This number of fiefs (of which 1800 owed liege homage) was enrolled in
the church of St Stephen at Troyes, and attested AD 1213, by the marshal and
butler of Champagne, (Ducange, Observ p 254).
151 Campania militiæ privilegio singularius excellit in tyrociniis prolusione
armorum, &c, Duncage, p 249, from the old Chronicle of Jerusalem, AD 1177–
1199.
152 The name of Villehardouin was taken from a village and castle in the diocese of Troyes, near the River Aube, between Bar and Arcis The family was
ancient and noble; the elder branch of our historian existed after the year 1400,
the younger, which acquired the principality of Achaia, merged in the house of
Savoy, (Ducange, p 235–245).
153 This office was held by his father and his descendants; but Ducange has
not hunted it with his usual sagacity I find that, in the year 1356, it was in the
family of Conflans; but these provincial have been long since eclipsed by the
national marshals of France.
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rude idiom of his age and country,154 to write or dictate155
an original narrative of the councils and actions in which he
bore a memorable part. At the same time, Baldwin, count
of Flanders, who had married the sister of Thibaut, assumed
the cross at Bruges, with his brother Henry, and the principal
knights and citizens of that rich and industrious province.156
The vow which the chiefs had pronounced in churches, they
ratified in tournaments; the operations of the war were debated in full and frequent assemblies; and it was resolved
to seek the deliverance of Palestine in Egypt, a country, since
Saladin’s death, which was almost ruined by famine and civil
war. But the fate of so many royal armies displayed the toils
and perils of a land expedition; and if the Flemings dwelt
along the ocean, the French barons were destitute of ships
and ignorant of navigation. They embraced the wise resolution of choosing six deputies or representatives, of whom
Villehardouin was one, with a discretionary trust to direct
the motions, and to pledge the faith, of the whole confederacy. The maritime states of Italy were alone possessed of
the means of transporting the holy warriors with their arms
and horses; and the six deputies proceeded to Venice, to solicit, on motives of piety or interest, the aid of that powerful
republic.
In the invasion of Italy by Attila, I have mentioned157 the
flight of the Venetians from the fallen cities of the continent,
154 This language, of which I shall produce some specimens, is explained by
Vigenere and Ducange, in a version and glossary The president Des Brosses
(Méchanisme des Langues, tom ii p 83) gives it as the example of a language
which has ceased to be French, and is understood only by grammarians.
155 His age, and his own expression, moi qui ceste uvre dicta, (No 62, &c,) may
justify the suspicion (more probable than Mr Wood’s on Homer) that he could
neither read nor write Yet Champagne may boast of the two first historians, the
noble authors of French prose, Villehardouin and Joinville.
156 The crusade and reigns of the counts of Flanders, Baldwin and his brother
Henry, are the subject of a particular history by the Jesuit Doutremens, (Constantinopolis Belgica; Turnaci, 1638, in 4to,) which I have only seen with the
eyes of Ducange.
157 History, &c, vol iii p 446, 447.
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and their obscure shelter in the chain of islands that line
the extremity of the Adriatic Gulf. In the midst of the waters, free, indigent, laborious, and inaccessible, they gradually coalesced into a republic: the first foundations of Venice
were laid in the Island of Rialto; and the annual election of
the twelve tribunes was superseded by the permanent office of a duke or doge. On the verge of the two empires,
the Venetians exult in the belief of primitive and perpetual
independence.158 Against the Latins, their antique freedom
has been asserted by the sword, and may be justified by the
pen. Charlemagne himself resigned all claims of sovereignty
to the islands of the Adriatic Gulf: his son Pepin was repulsed
in the attacks of the lagunas or canals, too deep for the cavalry,
and too shallow for the vessels; and in every age, under the
German Cæsars, the lands of the republic have been clearly
distinguished from the kingdom of Italy. But the inhabitants
of Venice were considered by themselves, by strangers, and
by their sovereigns, as an inalienable portion of the Greek
empire:159 in the ninth and tenth centuries, the proofs of
their subjection are numerous and unquestionable; and the
vain titles, the servile honors, of the Byzantine court, so ambitiously solicited by their dukes, would have degraded the
magistrates of a free people. But the bands of this dependence, which was never absolute or rigid, were imperceptibly
relaxed by the ambition of Venice and the weakness of Con158 The foundation and independence of Venice, and Pepin’s invasion, are discussed by Pagi (Critica, tom iii AD 81, No 4, &c) and Beretti, (Dissert Chorograph Italiæ Medii Ævi, in Muratori, Script tom x p 153) The two critics have a
slight bias, the Frenchman adverse, the Italian favorable, to the republic.
159 When the son of Charlemagne asserted his right of sovereignty, he was answered by the loyal Venetians, oti hmeiV douloi Jelomen einai tou ‘Rwmaiwn
basilewV, (Constantin Porphyrogenit de Administrat Imperii, pars ii c 28, p 85;)
and the report of the ixth establishes the fact of the xth century, which is confirmed by the embassy of Liutprand of Cremona The annual tribute, which the
emperor allows them to pay to the king of Italy, alleviates, by doubling, their
servitude; but the hateful word douloi must be translated, as in the charter of
827, (Laugier, Hist de Venice, tom i p 67, &c,) by the softer appellation of subditi,
or fideles.
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stantinople. Obedience was softened into respect, privilege
ripened into prerogative, and the freedom of domestic government was fortified by the independence of foreign dominion. The maritime cities of Istria and Dalmatia bowed to the
sovereigns of the Adriatic; and when they armed against the
Normans in the cause of Alexius, the emperor applied, not
to the duty of his subjects, but to the gratitude and generosity of his faithful allies. The sea was their patrimony:160 the
western parts of the Mediterranean, from Tuscany to Gibraltar, were indeed abandoned to their rivals of Pisa and Genoa;
but the Venetians acquired an early and lucrative share of the
commerce of Greece and Egypt. Their riches increased with
the increasing demand of Europe; their manufactures of silk
and glass, perhaps the institution of their bank, are of high
antiquity; and they enjoyed the fruits of their industry in the
magnificence of public and private life. To assert her flag,
to avenge her injuries, to protect the freedom of navigation,
the republic could launch and man a fleet of a hundred galleys; and the Greeks, the Saracens, and the Normans, were
encountered by her naval arms. The Franks of Syria were
assisted by the Venetians in the reduction of the sea coast;
but their zeal was neither blind nor disinterested; and in the
conquest of Tyre, they shared the sovereignty of a city, the
first seat of the commerce of the world. The policy of Venice
was marked by the avarice of a trading, and the insolence
of a maritime, power; yet her ambition was prudent: nor
did she often forget that if armed galleys were the effect and
safeguard, merchant vessels were the cause and supply, of
her greatness. In her religion, she avoided the schisms of
the Greeks, without yielding a servile obedience to the Roman pontiff; and a free intercourse with the infidels of ev160 See the xxvth and xxxth dissertations of the Antiquitates Medii Ævi of Muratori From Anderson’s History of Commerce, I understand that the Venetians
did not trade to England before the year 1323 The most flourishing state of
their wealth and commerce, in the beginning of the xvth century, is agreeably
described by the Abbé Dubos, (Hist de la Ligue de Cambray, tom ii p 443–480).
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ery clime appears to have allayed betimes the fever of superstition. Her primitive government was a loose mixture of
democracy and monarchy; the doge was elected by the votes
of the general assembly; as long as he was popular and successful, he reigned with the pomp and authority of a prince;
but in the frequent revolutions of the state, he was deposed,
or banished, or slain, by the justice or injustice of the multitude. The twelfth century produced the first rudiments of the
wise and jealous aristocracy, which has reduced the doge to
a pageant, and the people to a cipher.161
161 The Venetians have been slow in writing and publishing their history Their
most ancient monuments are, 1 The rude Chronicle (perhaps) of John Sagorninus, (Venezia, 1765, in octavo,) which represents the state and manners of
Venice in the year 1008 2 The larger history of the doge, (1342–1354,) Andrew
Dandolo, published for the first time in the xiith tom of Muratori, AD 1728 The
History of Venice by the Abbé Laugier, (Paris, 1728,) is a work of some merit,
which I have chiefly used for the constitutional part (It is scarcely necessary
to mention the valuable work of Count Daru, “History de Venise,” of which I
hear that an Italian translation has been published, with notes defensive of the
ancient republic I have not yet seen this work.) –M.
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Part II
the six ambassadors of the French pilgrims arW
rived at Venice, they were hospitably entertained in the
palace of St. Mark, by the reigning duke; his name was Henry
HEN
Dandolo;162 and he shone in the last period of human life
as one of the most illustrious characters of the times. Under
the weight of years, and after the loss of his eyes,163 Dandolo retained a sound understanding and a manly courage:
the spirit of a hero, ambitious to signalize his reign by some
memorable exploits; and the wisdom of a patriot, anxious
to build his fame on the glory and advantage of his country. He praised the bold enthusiasm and liberal confidence
of the barons and their deputies: in such a cause, and with
such associates, he should aspire, were he a private man, to
terminate his life; but he was the servant of the republic, and
some delay was requisite to consult, on this arduous business, the judgment of his colleagues. The proposal of the
French was first debated by the six sages who had been recently appointed to control the administration of the doge:
it was next disclosed to the forty members of the council of
state; and finally communicated to the legislative assembly of
162 Henry Dandolo was eighty-four at his election, (AD 1192,) and ninetyseven at his death, (AD 1205) See the Observations of Ducange sur Villehardouin, No 204 But this extraordinary longevity is not observed by the original writers, nor does there exist another example of a hero near a hundred
years of age Theophrastus might afford an instance of a writer of ninety-nine;
but instead of ennenhkonta, (Prom ad Character,)I am much inclined to read
ebdomhkonta, with his last editor Fischer, and the first thoughts of Casaubon
It is scarcely possible that the powers of the mind and body should support
themselves till such a period of life.
163 The modern Venetians (Laugier, tom ii p 119) accuse the emperor Manuel;
but the calumny is refuted by Villehardouin and the older writers, who suppose that Dandolo lost his eyes by a wound, (No 31, and Ducange) (The accounts differ, both as to the extent and the cause of his blindness According to
Villehardouin and others, the sight was totally lost; according to the Chronicle
of Andrew Dandolo (Murat tom xii p 322,) he was vise debilis See Wilken, vol
v p 143) –M.
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four hundred and fifty representatives, who were annually
chosen in the six quarters of the city. In peace and war, the
doge was still the chief of the republic; his legal authority was
supported by the personal reputation of Dandolo: his arguments of public interest were balanced and approved; and he
was authorized to inform the ambassadors of the following
conditions of the treaty.164 It was proposed that the crusaders
should assemble at Venice, on the feast of St. John of the
ensuing year; that flat-bottomed vessels should be prepared
for four thousand five hundred horses, and nine thousand
squires, with a number of ships sufficient for the embarkation
of four thousand five hundred knights, and twenty thousand
foot; that during a term of nine months they should be supplied with provisions, and transported to whatsoever coast
the service of God and Christendom should require; and that
the republic should join the armament with a squadron of
fifty galleys. It was required, that the pilgrims should pay,
before their departure, a sum of eighty-five thousand marks
of silver; and that all conquests, by sea and land, should be
equally divided between the confederates. The terms were
hard; but the emergency was pressing, and the French barons
were not less profuse of money than of blood. A general assembly was convened to ratify the treaty: the stately chapel
and place of St. Mark were filled with ten thousand citizens; and the noble deputies were taught a new lesson of
humbling themselves before the majesty of the people. “Illustrious Venetians,” said the marshal of Champagne, “we
are sent by the greatest and most powerful barons of France
to implore the aid of the masters of the sea for the deliverance of Jerusalem. They have enjoined us to fall prostrate
at your feet; nor will we rise from the ground till you have
promised to avenge with us the injuries of Christ.” The eloquence of their words and tears,165 their martial aspect, and
164 See
the original treaty in the Chronicle of Andrew Dandolo, p 323–326.
reader of Villehardouin must observe the frequent tears of the marshal
and his brother knights Sachiez que la ot mainte lerme plorée de pitié, (No
165 A
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PART II
suppliant attitude, were applauded by a universal shout; as
it were, says Jeffrey, by the sound of an earthquake. The
venerable doge ascended the pulpit to urge their request by
those motives of honor and virtue, which alone can be offered
to a popular assembly: the treaty was transcribed on parchment, attested with oaths and seals, mutually accepted by the
weeping and joyful representatives of France and Venice; and
despatched to Rome for the approbation of Pope Innocent the
Third. Two thousand marks were borrowed of the merchants
for the first expenses of the armament. Of the six deputies,
two repassed the Alps to announce their success, while their
four companions made a fruitless trial of the zeal and emulation of the republics of Genoa and Pisa.
The execution of the treaty was still opposed by unforeseen difficulties and delays. The marshal, on his return to
Troyes, was embraced and approved by Thibaut count of
Champagne, who had been unanimously chosen general of
the confederates. But the health of that valiant youth already
declined, and soon became hopeless; and he deplored the untimely fate, which condemned him to expire, not in a field of
battle, but on a bed of sickness. To his brave and numerous vassals, the dying prince distributed his treasures: they
swore in his presence to accomplish his vow and their own;
but some there were, says the marshal, who accepted his gifts
and forfeited their words. The more resolute champions of
the cross held a parliament at Soissons for the election of a
new general; but such was the incapacity, or jealousy, or reluctance, of the princes of France, that none could be found
both able and willing to assume the conduct of the enterprise.
They acquiesced in the choice of a stranger, of Boniface marquis of Montferrat, descended of a race of heroes, and himself of conspicuous fame in the wars and negotiations of the
17;) mult plorant, (ibid;) mainte lerme plorée, (No 34;) si orent mult pitié et
plorerent mult durement, (No 60;) i ot mainte lerme plorée de pitié, (No 202)
They weep on every occasion of grief, joy, or devotion.
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times;166 nor could the piety or ambition of the Italian chief
decline this honorable invitation. After visiting the French
court, where he was received as a friend and kinsman, the
marquis, in the church of Soissons, was invested with the
cross of a pilgrim and the staff of a general; and immediately
repassed the Alps, to prepare for the distant expedition of the
East. About the festival of the Pentecost he displayed his banner, and marched towards Venice at the head of the Italians:
he was preceded or followed by the counts of Flanders and
Blois, and the most respectable barons of France; and their
numbers were swelled by the pilgrims of Germany,167 whose
object and motives were similar to their own. The Venetians
had fulfilled, and even surpassed, their engagements: stables
were constructed for the horses, and barracks for the troops:
the magazines were abundantly replenished with forage and
provisions; and the fleet of transports, ships, and galleys, was
ready to hoist sail as soon as the republic had received the
price of the freight and armament. But that price far exceeded
the wealth of the crusaders who were assembled at Venice.
The Flemings, whose obedience to their count was voluntary
and precarious, had embarked in their vessels for the long
navigation of the ocean and Mediterranean; and many of the
French and Italians had preferred a cheaper and more convenient passage from Marseilles and Apulia to the Holy Land.
Each pilgrim might complain, that after he had furnished his
own contribution, he was made responsible for the deficiency
of his absent brethren: the gold and silver plate of the chiefs,
which they freely delivered to the treasury of St. Marks, was
a generous but inadequate sacrifice; and after all their efforts,
thirty-four thousand marks were still wanting to complete
166 By a victory (AD 1191) over the citizens of Asti, by a crusade to Palestine,
and by an embassy from the pope to the German princes, (Muratori, Annali
d’Italia, tom x p 163, 202).
167 See the crusade of the Germans in the Historia C P of Gunther, (Canisii
Antiq Lect tom iv p v–viii,) who celebrates the pilgrimage of his abbot Martin,
one of the preaching rivals of Fulk of Neuilly His monastery, of the Cistercian
order, was situate in the diocese of Basil.
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the stipulated sum. The obstacle was removed by the policy
and patriotism of the doge, who proposed to the barons, that
if they would join their arms in reducing some revolted cities
of Dalmatia, he would expose his person in the holy war, and
obtain from the republic a long indulgence, till some wealthy
conquest should afford the means of satisfying the debt. After much scruple and hesitation, they chose rather to accept
the offer than to relinquish the enterprise; and the first hostilities of the fleet and army were directed against Zara,168 a
strong city of the Sclavonian coast, which had renounced its
allegiance to Venice, and implored the protection of the king
of Hungary.169 The crusaders burst the chain or boom of the
harbor; landed their horses, troops, and military engines; and
compelled the inhabitants, after a defence of five days, to surrender at discretion: their lives were spared, but the revolt
was punished by the pillage of their houses and the demolition of their walls. The season was far advanced; the French
and Venetians resolved to pass the winter in a secure harbor
and plentiful country; but their repose was disturbed by national and tumultuous quarrels of the soldiers and mariners.
The conquest of Zara had scattered the seeds of discord and
scandal: the arms of the allies had been stained in their outset
with the blood, not of infidels, but of Christians: the king of
Hungary and his new subjects were themselves enlisted under the banner of the cross; and the scruples of the devout
were magnified by the fear of lassitude of the reluctant pilgrims. The pope had excommunicated the false crusaders
168 Jadera, now Zara, was a Roman colony, which acknowledged Augustus
for its parent It is now only two miles round, and contains five or six thousand
inhabitants; but the fortifications are strong, and it is joined to the main land
by a bridge See the travels of the two companions, Spon and Wheeler, (Voyage
de Dalmatie, de Grèce, &c, tom i p 64–70 Journey into Greece, p 8–14;) the last
of whom, by mistaking Sestertia for Sestertii, values an arch with statues and
columns at twelve pounds If, in his time, there were no trees near Zara, the
cherry-trees were not yet planted which produce our incomparable marasquin.
169 Katona (Hist Critica Reg Hungariæ, Stirpis Arpad tom iv p 536–558) collects all the facts and testimonies most adverse to the conquerors of Zara.
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who had pillaged and massacred their brethren,170 and only
the marquis Boniface and Simon of Montfort171 escaped these
spiritual thunders; the one by his absence from the siege, the
other by his final departure from the camp. Innocent might
absolve the simple and submissive penitents of France; but he
was provoked by the stubborn reason of the Venetians, who
refused to confess their guilt, to accept their pardon, or to allow, in their temporal concerns, the interposition of a priest.
The assembly of such formidable powers by sea and land
had revived the hopes of young172 Alexius; and both at
Venice and Zara, he solicited the arms of the crusaders, for
his own restoration and his father’s173 deliverance. The royal
youth was recommended by Philip king of Germany: his
prayers and presence excited the compassion of the camp;
and his cause was embraced and pleaded by the marquis of
Montferrat and the doge of Venice. A double alliance, and
the dignity of Cæsar, had connected with the Imperial family the two elder brothers of Boniface:174 he expected to derive a kingdom from the important service; and the more
170 See the whole transaction, and the sentiments of the pope, in the Epistles
of Innocent III Gesta, c 86, 87, 88.
171 Montfort protested against the siege Guido, the abbot of Vaux de Sernay,
in the name of the pope, interdicted the attack on a Christian city; and the
immediate surrender of the town was thus delayed for five days of fruitless
resistance Wilken, vol v p 167 See likewise, at length, the history of the interdict
issued by the pope Ibid–M.
172 A modern reader is surprised to hear of the valet de Constantinople, as
applied to young Alexius, on account of his youth, like the infants of Spain, and
the nobilissimus puer of the Romans The pages and valets of the knights were as
noble as themselves, (Villehardouin and Ducange, No 36).
173 The emperor Isaac is styled by Villehardouin, Sursac, (No 35, &c,) which
may be derived from the French Sire, or the Greek Kur (kurioV?) melted into
his proper name; the further corruptions of Tursac and Conserac will instruct
us what license may have been used in the old dynasties of Assyria and Egypt.
174 Reinier and Conrad: the former married Maria, daughter of the emperor
Manuel Comnenus; the latter was the husband of Theodora Angela, sister of the
emperors Isaac and Alexius Conrad abandoned the Greek court and princess
for the glory of defending Tyre against Saladin, (Ducange, Fam Byzant p 187,
203).
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generous ambition of Dandolo was eager to secure the inestimable benefits of trade and dominion that might accrue
to his country.175 Their influence procured a favorable audience for the ambassadors of Alexius; and if the magnitude of
his offers excited some suspicion, the motives and rewards
which he displayed might justify the delay and diversion
of those forces which had been consecrated to the deliverance of Jerusalem. He promised in his own and his father’s
name, that as soon as they should be seated on the throne
of Constantinople, they would terminate the long schism of
the Greeks, and submit themselves and their people to the
lawful supremacy of the Roman church. He engaged to recompense the labors and merits of the crusaders, by the immediate payment of two hundred thousand marks of silver;
to accompany them in person to Egypt; or, if it should be
judged more advantageous, to maintain, during a year, ten
thousand men, and, during his life, five hundred knights,
for the service of the Holy Land. These tempting conditions
were accepted by the republic of Venice; and the eloquence
of the doge and marquis persuaded the counts of Flanders,
Blois, and St. Pol, with eight barons of France, to join in the
glorious enterprise. A treaty of offensive and defensive alliance was confirmed by their oaths and seals; and each individual, according to his situation and character, was swayed
by the hope of public or private advantage; by the honor of
restoring an exiled monarch; or by the sincere and probable
opinion, that their efforts in Palestine would be fruitless and
unavailing, and that the acquisition of Constantinople must
precede and prepare the recovery of Jerusalem. But they were
the chiefs or equals of a valiant band of freemen and volun175 Nicetas (in Alexio Comneno, l iii c 9) accuses the doge and Venetians as
the first authors of the war against Constantinople, and considers only as a
kuma epi kumati, the arrival and shameful offers of the royal exile * Note: He
admits, however, that the Angeli had committed depredations on the Venetian
trade, and the emperor himself had refused the payment of part of the stipulated compensation for the seizure of the Venetian merchandise by the emperor
Manuel Nicetas, in loc–M.
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teers, who thought and acted for themselves: the soldiers and
clergy were divided; and, if a large majority subscribed to the
alliance, the numbers and arguments of the dissidents were
strong and respectable.176 The boldest hearts were appalled
by the report of the naval power and impregnable strength
of Constantinople; and their apprehensions were disguised
to the world, and perhaps to themselves, by the more decent
objections of religion and duty. They alleged the sanctity of a
vow, which had drawn them from their families and homes
to the rescue of the holy sepulchre; nor should the dark and
crooked counsels of human policy divert them from a pursuit, the event of which was in the hands of the Almighty.
Their first offence, the attack of Zara, had been severely punished by the reproach of their conscience and the censures
of the pope; nor would they again imbrue their hands in
the blood of their fellow-Christians. The apostle of Rome
had pronounced; nor would they usurp the right of avenging with the sword the schism of the Greeks and the doubtful
usurpation of the Byzantine monarch. On these principles
or pretences, many pilgrims, the most distinguished for their
valor and piety, withdrew from the camp; and their retreat
was less pernicious than the open or secret opposition of a
discontented party, that labored, on every occasion, to separate the army and disappoint the enterprise.
Notwithstanding this defection, the departure of the fleet
and army was vigorously pressed by the Venetians, whose
zeal for the service of the royal youth concealed a just resentment to his nation and family. They were mortified by
the recent preference which had been given to Pisa, the rival of their trade; they had a long arrear of debt and injury
to liquidate with the Byzantine court; and Dandolo might
not discourage the popular tale, that he had been deprived
of his eyes by the emperor Manuel, who perfidiously vio176 Villehardouin and Gunther represent the sentiments of the two parties The
abbot Martin left the army at Zara, proceeded to Palestine, was sent ambassador to Constantinople, and became a reluctant witness of the second siege.
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lated the sanctity of an ambassador. A similar armament,
for ages, had not rode the Adriatic: it was composed of one
hundred and twenty flat-bottomed vessels or palanders for the
horses; two hundred and forty transports filled with men and
arms; seventy store-ships laden with provisions; and fifty
stout galleys, well prepared for the encounter of an enemy.177
While the wind was favorable, the sky serene, and the water smooth, every eye was fixed with wonder and delight on
the scene of military and naval pomp which overspread the
sea.178 The shields of the knights and squires, at once an ornament and a defence, were arranged on either side of the
ships; the banners of the nations and families were displayed
from the stern; our modern artillery was supplied by three
hundred engines for casting stones and darts: the fatigues of
the way were cheered with the sound of music; and the spirits of the adventurers were raised by the mutual assurance,
that forty thousand Christian heroes were equal to the conquest of the world.179 In the navigation180 from Venice and
Zara, the fleet was successfully steered by the skill and experience of the Venetian pilots: at Durazzo, the confederates
first landed on the territories of the Greek empire: the Isle
of Corfu afforded a station and repose; they doubled, without accident, the perilous cape of Malea, the southern point
177 The birth and dignity of Andrew Dandolo gave him the motive and the
means of searching in the archives of Venice the memorable story of his ancestor His brevity seems to accuse the copious and more recent narratives of
Sanudo, (in Muratori, Script Rerum Italicarum, tom xxii,) Blondus, Sabellicus,
and Rhamnusius.
178 This description rather belongs to the first setting sail of the expedition
from Venice, before the siege of Zara The armament did not return to Venice–
M.
179 Villehardouin, No 62 His feelings and expressions are original: he often
weeps, but he rejoices in the glories and perils of war with a spirit unknown to
a sedentary writer.
180 In this voyage, almost all the geographical names are corrupted by the
Latins The modern appellation of Chalcis, and all Euba, is derived from its Euripus, Evripo, Negri-po, Negropont, which dishonors our maps, (D’Anville, Géographie Ancienne, tom i p 263).
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of Peloponnesus or the Morea; made a descent in the islands
of Negropont and Andros; and cast anchor at Abydus on the
Asiatic side of the Hellespont. These preludes of conquest
were easy and bloodless: the Greeks of the provinces, without patriotism or courage, were crushed by an irresistible
force: the presence of the lawful heir might justify their obedience; and it was rewarded by the modesty and discipline
of the Latins. As they penetrated through the Hellespont, the
magnitude of their navy was compressed in a narrow channel, and the face of the waters was darkened with innumerable sails. They again expanded in the basin of the Propontis,
and traversed that placid sea, till they approached the European shore, at the abbey of St. Stephen, three leagues to the
west of Constantinople. The prudent doge dissuaded them
from dispersing themselves in a populous and hostile land;
and, as their stock of provisions was reduced, it was resolved,
in the season of harvest, to replenish their store-ships in the
fertile islands of the Propontis. With this resolution, they directed their course: but a strong gale, and their own impatience, drove them to the eastward; and so near did they run
to the shore and the city, that some volleys of stones and darts
were exchanged between the ships and the rampart. As they
passed along, they gazed with admiration on the capital of
the East, or, as it should seem, of the earth; rising from her
seven hills, and towering over the continents of Europe and
Asia. The swelling domes and lofty spires of five hundred
palaces and churches were gilded by the sun and reflected in
the waters: the walls were crowded with soldiers and spectators, whose numbers they beheld, of whose temper they
were ignorant; and each heart was chilled by the reflection,
that, since the beginning of the world, such an enterprise had
never been undertaken by such a handful of warriors. But the
momentary apprehension was dispelled by hope and valor;
and every man, says the marshal of Champagne, glanced his
eye on the sword or lance which he must speedily use in the
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glorious conflict.181 The Latins cast anchor before Chalcedon;
the mariners only were left in the vessels: the soldiers, horses,
and arms, were safely landed; and, in the luxury of an Imperial palace, the barons tasted the first fruits of their success. On the third day, the fleet and army moved towards
Scutari, the Asiatic suburb of Constantinople: a detachment
of five hundred Greek horse was surprised and defeated by
fourscore French knights; and in a halt of nine days, the camp
was plentifully supplied with forage and provisions.
In relating the invasion of a great empire, it may seem
strange that I have not described the obstacles which should
have checked the progress of the strangers. The Greeks, in
truth, were an unwarlike people; but they were rich, industrious, and subject to the will of a single man: had that man
been capable of fear, when his enemies were at a distance,
or of courage, when they approached his person. The first
rumor of his nephew’s alliance with the French and Venetians was despised by the usurper Alexius: his flatterers persuaded him, that in this contempt he was bold and sincere;
and each evening, in the close of the banquet, he thrice discomfited the Barbarians of the West. These Barbarians had
been justly terrified by the report of his naval power; and
the sixteen hundred fishing boats of Constantinople182 could
have manned a fleet, to sink them in the Adriatic, or stop
their entrance in the mouth of the Hellespont. But all force
may be annihilated by the negligence of the prince and the
venality of his ministers. The great duke, or admiral, made
a scandalous, almost a public, auction of the sails, the masts,
and the rigging: the royal forests were reserved for the more
important purpose of the chase; and the trees, says Nicetas,
181 Et sachiez que il ni ot si hardi cui le cuer ne fremist, (c 66) Chascuns regardoit ses armes que par tems en arons mestier, (c 67) Such is the honesty of
courage.
182 Eandem urbem plus in solis navibus piscatorum abundare, quam illos in
toto navigio Habebat enim mille et sexcentas piscatorias naves Bellicas autem
sive mercatorias habebant infinitæ multitudinis et portum tutissimum Gunther,
Hist C P c 8, p 10.
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were guarded by the eunuchs, like the groves of religious
worship.183 From his dream of pride, Alexius was awakened
by the siege of Zara, and the rapid advances of the Latins; as
soon as he saw the danger was real, he thought it inevitable,
and his vain presumption was lost in abject despondency and
despair. He suffered these contemptible Barbarians to pitch
their camp in the sight of the palace; and his apprehensions
were thinly disguised by the pomp and menace of a suppliant
embassy. The sovereign of the Romans was astonished (his
ambassadors were instructed to say) at the hostile appearance of the strangers. If these pilgrims were sincere in their
vow for the deliverance of Jerusalem, his voice must applaud,
and his treasures should assist, their pious design but should
they dare to invade the sanctuary of empire, their numbers,
were they ten times more considerable, should not protect
them from his just resentment. The answer of the doge and
barons was simple and magnanimous. “In the cause of honor
and justice,” they said, “we despise the usurper of Greece, his
threats, and his offers. Our friendship and his allegiance are
due to the lawful heir, to the young prince, who is seated
among us, and to his father, the emperor Isaac, who has been
deprived of his sceptre, his freedom, and his eyes, by the
crime of an ungrateful brother. Let that brother confess his
guilt, and implore forgiveness, and we ourselves will intercede, that he may be permitted to live in affluence and security. But let him not insult us by a second message; our reply
will be made in arms, in the palace of Constantinople.”
On the tenth day of their encampment at Scutari, the crusaders prepared themselves, as soldiers and as Catholics, for
the passage of the Bosphorus. Perilous indeed was the adventure; the stream was broad and rapid: in a calm the current of the Euxine might drive down the liquid and unextinguishable fires of the Greeks; and the opposite shores of Eu183 Kaqaper iervn alsewn, eipein de kai Jeojuteutwn paradeiswn ejeid?onto
toutwni Nicetas in Alex Comneno, l iii c 9, p 348.
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rope were defended by seventy thousand horse and foot in
formidable array. On this memorable day, which happened
to be bright and pleasant, the Latins were distributed in six
battles or divisions; the first, or vanguard, was led by the
count of Flanders, one of the most powerful of the Christian princes in the skill and number of his crossbows. The
four successive battles of the French were commanded by his
brother Henry, the counts of St. Pol and Blois, and Matthew
of Montmorency; the last of whom was honored by the voluntary service of the marshal and nobles of Champagne. The
sixth division, the rear-guard and reserve of the army, was
conducted by the marquis of Montferrat, at the head of the
Germans and Lombards. The chargers, saddled, with their
long comparisons dragging on the ground, were embarked
in the flat palanders;184 and the knights stood by the side of
their horses, in complete armor, their helmets laced, and their
lances in their hands. The numerous train of sergeants185
and archers occupied the transports; and each transport was
towed by the strength and swiftness of a galley. The six divisions traversed the Bosphorus, without encountering an enemy or an obstacle: to land the foremost was the wish, to conquer or die was the resolution, of every division and of every
soldier. Jealous of the preeminence of danger, the knights in
their heavy armor leaped into the sea, when it rose as high as
their girdle; the sergeants and archers were animated by their
valor; and the squires, letting down the draw-bridges of the
184 From the version of Vignere I adopt the well-sounding word palander,
which is still used, I believe, in the Mediterranean But had I written in French, I
should have preserved the original and expressive denomination of vessiers or
huissiers, from the huis or door which was let down as a draw-bridge; but which,
at sea, was closed into the side of the ship, (see Ducange au Villehardouin, No
14, and Joinville p 27, 28, edit du Louvre).
185 To avoid the vague expressions of followers, &c, I use, after Villehardouin,
the word sergeants for all horsemen who were not knights There were sergeants
at arms, and sergeants at law; and if we visit the parade and Westminster Hall,
we may observe the strange result of the distinction, (Ducange, Glossar Latin,
Servientes, &c, tom vi p 226–231).
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palanders, led the horses to the shore. Before their squadrons
could mount, and form, and couch their Lances, the seventy
thousand Greeks had vanished from their sight: the timid
Alexius gave the example to his troops; and it was only by the
plunder of his rich pavilions that the Latins were informed
that they had fought against an emperor. In the first consternation of the flying enemy, they resolved, by a double attack,
to open the entrance of the harbor. The tower of Galata,186 in
the suburb of Pera, was attacked and stormed by the French,
while the Venetians assumed the more difficult task of forcing
the boom or chain that was stretched from that tower to the
Byzantine shore. After some fruitless attempts, their intrepid
perseverance prevailed: twenty ships of war, the relics of the
Grecian navy, were either sunk or taken: the enormous and
massy links of iron were cut asunder by the shears, or broken
by the weight, of the galleys;187 and the Venetian fleet, safe
and triumphant, rode at anchor in the port of Constantinople. By these daring achievements, a remnant of twenty thousand Latins solicited the license of besieging a capital which
contained above four hundred thousand inhabitants,188 able,
though not willing, to bear arms in defence of their coun186 It is needless to observe, that on the subject of Galata, the chain, &c,
Ducange is accurate and full Consult likewise the proper chapters of the C P
Christiana of the same author The inhabitants of Galata were so vain and ignorant, that they applied to themselves St Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians.
187 The vessel that broke the chain was named the Eagle, Aquila, (Dandolo,
Chronicon, p 322,) which Blondus (de Gestis Venet) has changed into Aquilo,
the north wind Ducange (Observations, No 83) maintains the latter reading;
but he had not seen the respectable text of Dandolo, nor did he enough consider
the topography of the harbor The south-east would have been a more effectual
wind (Note to Wilken, vol v p 215).
188 Quatre cens mil homes ou plus, (Villehardouin, No 134,) must be understood of men of a military age Le Beau (Hist du Bas Empire, tom xx p 417)
allows Constantinople a million of inhabitants, of whom 60,000 horse, and an
infinite number of foot-soldiers In its present decay, the capital of the Ottoman
empire may contain 400,000 souls, (Bell’s Travels, vol ii p 401, 402;) but as the
Turks keep no registers, and as circumstances are fallacious, it is impossible to
ascertain (Niebuhr, Voyage en Arabie, tom i p 18, 19) the real populousness of
their cities.
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try. Such an account would indeed suppose a population of
near two millions; but whatever abatement may be required
in the numbers of the Greeks, the belief of those numbers will
equally exalt the fearless spirit of their assailants.
In the choice of the attack, the French and Venetians were
divided by their habits of life and warfare. The former affirmed with truth, that Constantinople was most accessible
on the side of the sea and the harbor. The latter might assert with honor, that they had long enough trusted their lives
and fortunes to a frail bark and a precarious element, and
loudly demanded a trial of knighthood, a firm ground, and
a close onset, either on foot or on horseback. After a prudent compromise, of employing the two nations by sea and
land, in the service best suited to their character, the fleet
covering the army, they both proceeded from the entrance
to the extremity of the harbor: the stone bridge of the river
was hastily repaired; and the six battles of the French formed
their encampment against the front of the capital, the basis
of the triangle which runs about four miles from the port to
the Propontis.189 On the edge of a broad ditch, at the foot
of a lofty rampart, they had leisure to contemplate the difficulties of their enterprise. The gates to the right and left of
their narrow camp poured forth frequent sallies of cavalry
and light-infantry, which cut off their stragglers, swept the
country of provisions, sounded the alarm five or six times in
the course of each day, and compelled them to plant a palisade, and sink an intrenchment, for their immediate safety.
In the supplies and convoys the Venetians had been too sparing, or the Franks too voracious: the usual complaints of
hunger and scarcity were heard, and perhaps felt their stock
of flour would be exhausted in three weeks; and their disgust
of salt meat tempted them to taste the flesh of their horses.
189 On the most correct plans of Constantinople, I know not how to measure
more than 4000 paces Yet Villehardouin computes the space at three leagues,
(No 86) If his eye were not deceived, he must reckon by the old Gallic league of
1500 paces, which might still be used in Champagne.
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The trembling usurper was supported by Theodore Lascaris,
his son-in-law, a valiant youth, who aspired to save and to
rule his country; the Greeks, regardless of that country, were
awakened to the defence of their religion; but their firmest
hope was in the strength and spirit of the Varangian guards,
of the Danes and English, as they are named in the writers of
the times.190 After ten days’ incessant labor, the ground was
levelled, the ditch filled, the approaches of the besiegers were
regularly made, and two hundred and fifty engines of assault
exercised their various powers to clear the rampart, to batter
the walls, and to sap the foundations. On the first appearance
of a breach, the scaling-ladders were applied: the numbers
that defended the vantage ground repulsed and oppressed
the adventurous Latins; but they admired the resolution of
fifteen knights and sergeants, who had gained the ascent, and
maintained their perilous station till they were precipitated
or made prisoners by the Imperial guards. On the side of the
harbor the naval attack was more successfully conducted by
the Venetians; and that industrious people employed every
resource that was known and practiced before the invention
of gunpowder. A double line, three bow-shots in front, was
formed by the galleys and ships; and the swift motion of the
former was supported by the weight and loftiness of the latter, whose decks, and poops, and turret, were the platforms
of military engines, that discharged their shot over the heads
of the first line. The soldiers, who leaped from the galleys
on shore, immediately planted and ascended their scalingladders, while the large ships, advancing more slowly into
the intervals, and lowering a draw-bridge, opened a way
through the air from their masts to the rampart. In the midst
of the conflict, the doge, a venerable and conspicuous form,
stood aloft in complete armor on the prow of his galley. The
great standard of St. Mark was displayed before him; his
190 The guards, the Varangi, are styled by Villehardouin, (No 89, 95) Englois
et Danois avec leurs haches Whatever had been their origin, a French pilgrim
could not be mistaken in the nations of which they were at that time composed.
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threats, promises, and exhortations, urged the diligence of
the rowers; his vessel was the first that struck; and Dandolo
was the first warrior on the shore. The nations admired the
magnanimity of the blind old man, without reflecting that
his age and infirmities diminished the price of life, and enhanced the value of immortal glory. On a sudden, by an invisible hand, (for the standard-bearer was probably slain,) the
banner of the republic was fixed on the rampart: twenty-five
towers were rapidly occupied; and, by the cruel expedient of
fire, the Greeks were driven from the adjacent quarter. The
doge had despatched the intelligence of his success, when he
was checked by the danger of his confederates. Nobly declaring that he would rather die with the pilgrims than gain a
victory by their destruction, Dandolo relinquished his advantage, recalled his troops, and hastened to the scene of action.
He found the six weary diminutive battles of the French encompassed by sixty squadrons of the Greek cavalry, the least
of which was more numerous than the largest of their divisions. Shame and despair had provoked Alexius to the last
effort of a general sally; but he was awed by the firm order
and manly aspect of the Latins; and, after skirmishing at a
distance, withdrew his troops in the close of the evening. The
silence or tumult of the night exasperated his fears; and the
timid usurper, collecting a treasure of ten thousand pounds
of gold, basely deserted his wife, his people, and his fortune;
threw himself into a bark; stole through the Bosphorus; and
landed in shameful safety in an obscure harbor of Thrace. As
soon as they were apprised of his flight, the Greek nobles
sought pardon and peace in the dungeon where the blind
Isaac expected each hour the visit of the executioner. Again
saved and exalted by the vicissitudes of fortune, the captive
in his Imperial robes was replace on the throne, and surrounded with prostrate slaves, whose real terror and affected
joy he was incapable of discerning. At the dawn of day, hostilities were suspended, and the Latin chiefs were surprised
by a message from the lawful and reigning emperor, who was
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impatient to embrace his son, and to reward his generous deliverers.191
191 For the first siege and conquest of Constantinople, we may read the original letter of the crusaders to Innocent III, Gesta, c 91, p 533, 534 Villehardouin,
No 75–99 Nicetas, in Alexio Comnen l iii c 10, p 349–352 Dandolo, in Chron
p 322 Gunther, and his abbot Martin, were not yet returned from their obstinate pilgrim age to Jerusalem, or St John d’Acre, where the greatest part of the
company had died of the plague.
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these generous deliverers were unwilling to release
B
their hostage, till they had obtained from his father the
payment, or at least the promise, of their recompense. They
UT
chose four ambassadors, Matthew of Montmorency, our historian the marshal of Champagne, and two Venetians, to congratulate the emperor. The gates were thrown open on their
approach, the streets on both sides were lined with the battle
axes of the Danish and English guard: the presence-chamber
glittered with gold and jewels, the false substitute of virtue
and power: by the side of the blind Isaac his wife was seated,
the sister of the king of Hungary: and by her appearance,
the noble matrons of Greece were drawn from their domestic
retirement, and mingled with the circle of senators and soldiers. The Latins, by the mouth of the marshal, spoke like
men conscious of their merits, but who respected the work of
their own hands; and the emperor clearly understood, that
his son’s engagements with Venice and the pilgrims must
be ratified without hesitation or delay. Withdrawing into a
private chamber with the empress, a chamberlain, an interpreter, and the four ambassadors, the father of young Alexius
inquired with some anxiety into the nature of his stipulations.
The submission of the Eastern empire to the pope, the succor
of the Holy Land, and a present contribution of two hundred
thousand marks of silver.–“These conditions are weighty,”
was his prudent reply: “they are hard to accept, and difficult to perform. But no conditions can exceed the measure
of your services and deserts.” After this satisfactory assurance, the barons mounted on horseback, and introduced the
heir of Constantinople to the city and palace: his youth and
marvellous adventures engaged every heart in his favor, and
Alexius was solemnly crowned with his father in the dome
of St. Sophia. In the first days of his reign, the people, already blessed with the restoration of plenty and peace, was
delighted by the joyful catastrophe of the tragedy; and the
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discontent of the nobles, their regret, and their fears, were
covered by the polished surface of pleasure and loyalty The
mixture of two discordant nations in the same capital might
have been pregnant with mischief and danger; and the suburb of Galata, or Pera, was assigned for the quarters of the
French and Venetians. But the liberty of trade and familiar
intercourse was allowed between the friendly nations: and
each day the pilgrims were tempted by devotion or curiosity to visit the churches and palaces of Constantinople. Their
rude minds, insensible perhaps of the finer arts, were astonished by the magnificent scenery: and the poverty of their native towns enhanced the populousness and riches of the first
metropolis of Christendom.192 Descending from his state,
young Alexius was prompted by interest and gratitude to repeat his frequent and familiar visits to his Latin allies; and
in the freedom of the table, the gay petulance of the French
sometimes forgot the emperor of the East.193 In their most serious conferences, it was agreed, that the reunion of the two
churches must be the result of patience and time; but avarice
was less tractable than zeal; and a larger sum was instantly
disbursed to appease the wants, and silence the importunity,
of the crusaders.194 Alexius was alarmed by the approaching
hour of their departure: their absence might have relieved
him from the engagement which he was yet incapable of
192 Compare, in the rude energy of Villehardouin, (No 66, 100,) the inside
and outside views of Constantinople, and their impression on the minds of the
pilgrims: cette ville (says he) que de toutes les autres ere souveraine See the
parallel passages of Fulcherius Carnotensis, Hist Hierosol l i c 4, and Will Tyr ii
3, xx 26.
193 As they played at dice, the Latins took off his diadem, and clapped on his
head a woollen or hairy cap, to megaloprepeV kai pagkleiston katerrupainen
onoma, (Nicetas, p 358) If these merry companions were Venetians, it was the
insolence of trade and a commonwealth.
194 Villehardouin, No 101 Dandolo, p 322 The doge affirms, that the Venetians
were paid more slowly than the French; but he owns, that the histories of the
two nations differed on that subject Had he read Villehardouin? The Greeks
complained, however, good totius Græciæ opes transtulisset, (Gunther, Hist C
P c 13) See the lamentations and invectives of Nicetas, (p 355).
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performing; but his friends would have left him, naked and
alone, to the caprice and prejudice of a perfidious nation. He
wished to bribe their stay, the delay of a year, by undertaking to defray their expense, and to satisfy, in their name, the
freight of the Venetian vessels. The offer was agitated in the
council of the barons; and, after a repetition of their debates
and scruples, a majority of votes again acquiesced in the advice of the doge and the prayer of the young emperor. At the
price of sixteen hundred pounds of gold, he prevailed on the
marquis of Montferrat to lead him with an army round the
provinces of Europe; to establish his authority, and pursue
his uncle, while Constantinople was awed by the presence of
Baldwin and his confederates of France and Flanders. The
expedition was successful: the blind emperor exulted in the
success of his arms, and listened to the predictions of his flatterers, that the same Providence which had raised him from
the dungeon to the throne, would heal his gout, restore his
sight, and watch over the long prosperity of his reign. Yet the
mind of the suspicious old man was tormented by the rising
glories of his son; nor could his pride conceal from his envy,
that, while his own name was pronounced in faint and reluctant acclamations, the royal youth was the theme of spontaneous and universal praise.195
By the recent invasion, the Greeks were awakened from
a dream of nine centuries; from the vain presumption that
the capital of the Roman empire was impregnable to foreign
arms. The strangers of the West had violated the city, and
bestowed the sceptre, of Constantine: their Imperial clients
soon became as unpopular as themselves: the well-known
vices of Isaac were rendered still more contemptible by his
infirmities, and the young Alexius was hated as an apostate,
who had renounced the manners and religion of his country. His secret covenant with the Latins was divulged or sus195 The reign of Alexius Comnenus occupies three books in Nicetas, p 291–
352 The short restoration of Isaac and his son is despatched in five chapters, p
352–362.
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pected; the people, and especially the clergy, were devoutly
attached to their faith and superstition; and every convent,
and every shop, resounded with the danger of the church
and the tyranny of the pope.196 An empty treasury could
ill supply the demands of regal luxury and foreign extortion:
the Greeks refused to avert, by a general tax, the impending
evils of servitude and pillage; the oppression of the rich excited a more dangerous and personal resentment; and if the
emperor melted the plate, and despoiled the images, of the
sanctuary, he seemed to justify the complaints of heresy and
sacrilege. During the absence of Marquis Boniface and his
Imperial pupil, Constantinople was visited with a calamity
which might be justly imputed to the zeal and indiscretion of
the Flemish pilgrims.197 In one of their visits to the city, they
were scandalized by the aspect of a mosque or synagogue,
in which one God was worshipped, without a partner or a
son. Their effectual mode of controversy was to attack the infidels with the sword, and their habitation with fire: but the
infidels, and some Christian neighbors, presumed to defend
their lives and properties; and the flames which bigotry had
kindled, consumed the most orthodox and innocent structures. During eight days and nights, the conflagration spread
above a league in front, from the harbor to the Propontis, over
the thickest and most populous regions of the city. It is not
easy to count the stately churches and palaces that were reduced to a smoking ruin, to value the merchandise that perished in the trading streets, or to number the families that
were involved in the common destruction. By this outrage,
196 When Nicetas reproaches Alexius for his impious league, he bestows
the harshest names on the pope’s new religion, meizon kai atopwtaton
parektrophn pistewV tvn tou Papa pronomiwn kainismon, metaqesin te kai
metapoihsin tvn palaivn ‘RwmaioiV?eqvn, (p 348) Such was the sincere language of every Greek to the last gasp of the empire.
197 Nicetas (p 355) is positive in the charge, and specifies the Flemings,
(FlamioneV,) though he is wrong in supposing it an ancient name Villehardouin
(No 107) exculpates the barons, and is ignorant (perhaps affectedly ignorant) of
the names of the guilty.
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which the doge and the barons in vain affected to disclaim,
the name of the Latins became still more unpopular; and the
colony of that nation, above fifteen thousand persons, consulted their safety in a hasty retreat from the city to the protection of their standard in the suburb of Pera. The emperor
returned in triumph; but the firmest and most dexterous policy would have been insufficient to steer him through the
tempest, which overwhelmed the person and government of
that unhappy youth. His own inclination, and his father’s
advice, attached him to his benefactors; but Alexius hesitated between gratitude and patriotism, between the fear of
his subjects and of his allies.198 By his feeble and fluctuating
conduct he lost the esteem and confidence of both; and, while
he invited the marquis of Monferrat to occupy the palace, he
suffered the nobles to conspire, and the people to arm, for
the deliverance of their country. Regardless of his painful situation, the Latin chiefs repeated their demands, resented his
delays, suspected his intentions, and exacted a decisive answer of peace or war. The haughty summons was delivered
by three French knights and three Venetian deputies, who
girded their swords, mounted their horses, pierced through
the angry multitude, and entered, with a fearful countenance,
the palace and presence of the Greek emperor. In a peremptory tone, they recapitulated their services and his engagements; and boldly declared, that unless their just claims were
fully and immediately satisfied, they should no longer hold
him either as a sovereign or a friend. After this defiance, the
first that had ever wounded an Imperial ear, they departed
without betraying any symptoms of fear; but their escape
from a servile palace and a furious city astonished the ambassadors themselves; and their return to the camp was the
signal of mutual hostility.
Among the Greeks, all authority and wisdom were over198 Compare the suspicions and complaints of Nicetas (p 359–362) with the
blunt charges of Baldwin of Flanders, (Gesta Innocent III c 92, p 534,) cum patriarcha et mole nobilium, nobis promises perjurus et mendax.
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borne by the impetuous multitude, who mistook their rage
for valor, their numbers for strength, and their fanaticism for
the support and inspiration of Heaven. In the eyes of both nations Alexius was false and contemptible; the base and spurious race of the Angeli was rejected with clamorous disdain;
and the people of Constantinople encompassed the senate,
to demand at their hands a more worthy emperor. To every senator, conspicuous by his birth or dignity, they successively presented the purple: by each senator the deadly
garment was repulsed: the contest lasted three days; and we
may learn from the historian Nicetas, one of the members of
the assembly, that fear and weaknesses were the guardians
of their loyalty. A phantom, who vanished in oblivion, was
forcibly proclaimed by the crowd:199 but the author of the
tumult, and the leader of the war, was a prince of the house
of Ducas; and his common appellation of Alexius must be
discriminated by the epithet of Mourzoufle,200 which in the
vulgar idiom expressed the close junction of his black and
shaggy eyebrows. At once a patriot and a courtier, the perfidious Mourzoufle, who was not destitute of cunning and
courage, opposed the Latins both in speech and action, inflamed the passions and prejudices of the Greeks, and insinuated himself into the favor and confidence of Alexius, who
trusted him with the office of great chamberlain, and tinged
his buskins with the colors of royalty. At the dead of night,
he rushed into the bed-chamber with an affrighted aspect, exclaiming, that the palace was attacked by the people and betrayed by the guards. Starting from his couch, the unsuspecting prince threw himself into the arms of his enemy, who had
contrived his escape by a private staircase. But that staircase
199 His name was Nicholas Canabus: he deserved the praise of Nicetas and
the vengeance of Mourzoufle, (p 362).
200 Villehardouin (No 116) speaks of him as a favorite, without knowing that
he was a prince of the blood, Angelus and Ducas Ducange, who pries into every
corner, believes him to be the son of Isaac Ducas Sebastocrator, and second
cousin of young Alexius.
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terminated in a prison: Alexius was seized, stripped, and
loaded with chains; and, after tasting some days the bitterness of death, he was poisoned, or strangled, or beaten with
clubs, at the command, or in the presence, of the tyrant. The
emperor Isaac Angelus soon followed his son to the grave;
and Mourzoufle, perhaps, might spare the superfluous crime
of hastening the extinction of impotence and blindness.
The death of the emperors, and the usurpation of Mourzoufle, had changed the nature of the quarrel. It was no
longer the disagreement of allies who overvalued their services, or neglected their obligations: the French and Venetians forgot their complaints against Alexius, dropped a tear
on the untimely fate of their companion, and swore revenge
against the perfidious nation who had crowned his assassin.
Yet the prudent doge was still inclined to negotiate: he asked
as a debt, a subsidy, or a fine, fifty thousand pounds of gold,
about two millions sterling; nor would the conference have
been abruptly broken, if the zeal, or policy, of Mourzoufle
had not refused to sacrifice the Greek church to the safety
of the state.201 Amidst the invectives of his foreign and domestic enemies, we may discern, that he was not unworthy
of the character which he had assumed, of the public champion: the second siege of Constantinople was far more laborious than the first; the treasury was replenished, and discipline was restored, by a severe inquisition into the abuses of
the former reign; and Mourzoufle, an iron mace in his hand,
visiting the posts, and affecting the port and aspect of a warrior, was an object of terror to his soldiers, at least, and to his
kinsmen. Before and after the death of Alexius, the Greeks
made two vigorous and well-conducted attempts to burn the
navy in the harbor; but the skill and courage of the Venetians repulsed the fire-ships; and the vagrant flames wasted
201 This negotiation, probable in itself, and attested by Nicetas, (p 65,) is omitted as scandalous by the delicacy of Dandolo and Villehardouin * Note: Wilken
places it before the death of Alexius, vol v p 276–M.
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themselves without injury in the sea.202 In a nocturnal sally
the Greek emperor was vanquished by Henry, brother of the
count of Flanders: the advantages of number and surprise
aggravated the shame of his defeat: his buckler was found
on the field of battle; and the Imperial standard,203 a divine
image of the Virgin, was presented, as a trophy and a relic
to the Cistercian monks, the disciples of St. Bernard. Near
three months, without excepting the holy season of Lent,
were consumed in skirmishes and preparations, before the
Latins were ready or resolved for a general assault. The land
fortifications had been found impregnable; and the Venetian
pilots represented, that, on the shore of the Propontis, the
anchorage was unsafe, and the ships must be driven by the
current far away to the straits of the Hellespont; a prospect
not unpleasing to the reluctant pilgrims, who sought every
opportunity of breaking the army. From the harbor, therefore, the assault was determined by the assailants, and expected by the besieged; and the emperor had placed his scarlet pavilions on a neighboring height, to direct and animate
the efforts of his troops. A fearless spectator, whose mind
could entertain the ideas of pomp and pleasure, might have
admired the long array of two embattled armies, which extended above half a league, the one on the ships and galleys,
the other on the walls and towers raised above the ordinary
level by several stages of wooden turrets. Their first fury
was spent in the discharge of darts, stones, and fire, from the
engines; but the water was deep; the French were bold; the
Venetians were skilful; they approached the walls; and a desperate conflict of swords, spears, and battle-axes, was fought
on the trembling bridges that grappled the floating, to the
202 Baldwin mentions both attempts to fire the fleet, (Gest c 92, p 534, 535;)
Villehardouin, (No 113–15) only describes the first It is remarkable that neither
of these warriors observe any peculiar properties in the Greek fire.
203 Ducange (No 119) pours forth a torrent of learning on the Gonfanon Imperial This banner of the Virgin is shown at Venice as a trophy and relic: if it be
genuine the pious doge must have cheated the monks of Citeaux.
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stable, batteries. In more than a hundred places, the assault
was urged, and the defence was sustained; till the superiority of ground and numbers finally prevailed, and the Latin
trumpets sounded a retreat. On the ensuing days, the attack
was renewed with equal vigor, and a similar event; and, in
the night, the doge and the barons held a council, apprehensive only for the public danger: not a voice pronounced the
words of escape or treaty; and each warrior, according to his
temper, embraced the hope of victory, or the assurance of a
glorious death.204 By the experience of the former siege, the
Greeks were instructed, but the Latins were animated; and
the knowledge that Constantinople might be taken, was of
more avail than the local precautions which that knowledge
had inspired for its defence. In the third assault, two ships
were linked together to double their strength; a strong north
wind drove them on the shore; the bishops of Troyes and
Soissons led the van; and the auspicious names of the pilgrim
and the paradise resounded along the line.205 The episcopal
banners were displayed on the walls; a hundred marks of silver had been promised to the first adventurers; and if their
reward was intercepted by death, their names have been immortalized by fame.206 Four towers were scaled; three gates
were burst open; and the French knights, who might tremble
on the waves, felt themselves invincible on horseback on the
solid ground. Shall I relate that the thousands who guarded
the emperor’s person fled on the approach, and before the
lance, of a single warrior? Their ignominious flight is attested
by their countryman Nicetas: an army of phantoms marched
with the French hero, and he was magnified to a giant in the
204 Villehardouin (No 126) confesses, that mult ere grant peril; and Guntherus
(Hist C P c 13) affirms, that nulla spes victoriæ arridere poterat Yet the knight
despises those who thought of flight, and the monk praises his countrymen
who were resolved on death.
205 Baldwin, and all the writers, honor the names of these two galleys, felici
auspicio.
206 Pietro Alberti, a Venetian noble and Andrew d’Amboise a French knight–
M.
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eyes of the Greeks.207 While the fugitives deserted their posts
and cast away their arms, the Latins entered the city under
the banners of their leaders: the streets and gates opened
for their passage; and either design or accident kindled a
third conflagration, which consumed in a few hours the measure of three of the largest cities of France.208 In the close of
evening, the barons checked their troops, and fortified their
stations: They were awed by the extent and populousness
of the capital, which might yet require the labor of a month,
if the churches and palaces were conscious of their internal
strength. But in the morning, a suppliant procession, with
crosses and images, announced the submission of the Greeks,
and deprecated the wrath of the conquerors: the usurper escaped through the golden gate: the palaces of Blachernæ and
Boucoleon were occupied by the count of Flanders and the
marquis of Montferrat; and the empire, which still bore the
name of Constantine, and the title of Roman, was subverted
by the arms of the Latin pilgrims.209
Constantinople had been taken by storm; and no restraints,
except those of religion and humanity, were imposed on the
conquerors by the laws of war. Boniface, marquis of Montferrat, still acted as their general; and the Greeks, who revered
207 With an allusion to Homer, Nicetas calls him enneorguioV, nine orgyæ, or
eighteen yards high, a stature which would, indeed, have excused the terror
of the Greek On this occasion, the historian seems fonder of the marvellous
than of his country, or perhaps of truth Baldwin exclaims in the words of the
psalmist, persequitur unus ex nobis centum alienos.
208 Villehardouin (No 130) is again ignorant of the authors of this more legitimate fire, which is ascribed by Gunther to a quidam comes Teutonicus, (c 14)
They seem ashamed, the incendiaries!.
209 For the second siege and conquest of Constantinople, see Villehardouin
(No 113–132,) Baldwin’s iid Epistle to Innocent III, (Gesta c 92, p 534–537,) with
the whole reign of Mourzoufle, in Nicetas, (p 363–375;) and borrowed some
hints from Dandolo (Chron Venet p 323–330) and Gunther, (Hist C P c 14–18,)
who added the decorations of prophecy and vision The former produces an oracle of the Erythræan sibyl, of a great armament on the Adriatic, under a blind
chief, against Byzantium, &c Curious enough, were the prediction anterior to
the fact.
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his name as that of their future sovereign, were heard to exclaim in a lamentable tone, “Holy marquis-king, have mercy
upon us!” His prudence or compassion opened the gates of
the city to the fugitives; and he exhorted the soldiers of the
cross to spare the lives of their fellow-Christians. The streams
of blood that flowed down the pages of Nicetas may be reduced to the slaughter of two thousand of his unresisting
countrymen;210 and the greater part was massacred, not by
the strangers, but by the Latins, who had been driven from
the city, and who exercised the revenge of a triumphant faction. Yet of these exiles, some were less mindful of injuries
than of benefits; and Nicetas himself was indebted for his
safety to the generosity of a Venetian merchant. Pope Innocent the Third accuses the pilgrims for respecting, in their
lust, neither age nor sex, nor religious profession; and bitterly
laments that the deeds of darkness, fornication, adultery, and
incest, were perpetrated in open day; and that noble matrons
and holy nuns were polluted by the grooms and peasants of
the Catholic camp.211 It is indeed probable that the license of
victory prompted and covered a multitude of sins: but it is
certain, that the capital of the East contained a stock of venal
or willing beauty, sufficient to satiate the desires of twenty
thousand pilgrims; and female prisoners were no longer subject to the right or abuse of domestic slavery. The marquis
of Montferrat was the patron of discipline and decency; the
count of Flanders was the mirror of chastity: they had forbidden, under pain of death, the rape of married women, or virgins, or nuns; and the proclamation was sometimes invoked
210 Ceciderunt tamen eâ die civium quasi duo millia, &c, (Gunther, c 18)
Arithmetic is an excellent touchstone to try the amplifications of passion and
rhetoric.
211 Quidam (says Innocent III, Gesta, c 94, p 538) nec religioni, nec ætati, nec
sexui pepercerunt: sed fornicationes, adulteria, et incestus in oculis omnium exercentes, non solûm maritatas et viduas, sed et matronas et virgines Deoque dicatas, exposuerunt spurcitiis garcionum Villehardouin takes no notice of these
common incidents.
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by the vanquished212 and respected by the victors. Their cruelty and lust were moderated by the authority of the chiefs,
and feelings of the soldiers; for we are no longer describing
an irruption of the northern savages; and however ferocious
they might still appear, time, policy, and religion had civilized the manners of the French, and still more of the Italians. But a free scope was allowed to their avarice, which
was glutted, even in the holy week, by the pillage of Constantinople. The right of victory, unshackled by any promise
or treaty, had confiscated the public and private wealth of the
Greeks; and every hand, according to its size and strength,
might lawfully execute the sentence and seize the forfeiture.
A portable and universal standard of exchange was found
in the coined and uncoined metals of gold and silver, which
each captor, at home or abroad, might convert into the possessions most suitable to his temper and situation. Of the
treasures, which trade and luxury had accumulated, the silks,
velvets, furs, the gems, spices, and rich movables, were the
most precious, as they could not be procured for money in the
ruder countries of Europe. An order of rapine was instituted;
nor was the share of each individual abandoned to industry
or chance. Under the tremendous penalties of perjury, excommunication, and death, the Latins were bound to deliver
their plunder into the common stock: three churches were
selected for the deposit and distribution of the spoil: a single share was allotted to a foot-soldier; two for a sergeant on
horseback; four to a knight; and larger proportions according
to the rank and merit of the barons and princes. For violating
this sacred engagement, a knight belonging to the count of
St. Paul was hanged with his shield and coat of arms round
his neck; his example might render similar offenders more
artful and discreet; but avarice was more powerful than fear;
and it is generally believed that the secret far exceeded the
212 Nicetas saved, and afterwards married, a noble virgin, (p 380,) whom a
soldier, eti martusi polloiV onhdon epibrimwmenoV, had almost violated in
spite of the entolai, entalmata eu gegonotwn.
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acknowledged plunder. Yet the magnitude of the prize surpassed the largest scale of experience or expectation.213 After
the whole had been equally divided between the French and
Venetians, fifty thousand marks were deducted to satisfy the
debts of the former and the demands of the latter. The residue
of the French amounted to four hundred thousand marks of
silver,214 about eight hundred thousand pounds sterling; nor
can I better appreciate the value of that sum in the public and
private transactions of the age, than by defining it as seven
times the annual revenue of the kingdom of England.215
In this great revolution we enjoy the singular felicity of
comparing the narratives of Villehardouin and Nicetas, the
opposite feelings of the marshal of Champagne and the
Byzantine senator.216 At the first view it should seem that
the wealth of Constantinople was only transferred from one
nation to another; and that the loss and sorrow of the Greeks
is exactly balanced by the joy and advantage of the Latins.
But in the miserable account of war, the gain is never equivalent to the loss, the pleasure to the pain; the smiles of the
Latins were transient and fallacious; the Greeks forever wept
over the ruins of their country; and their real calamities were
aggravated by sacrilege and mockery. What benefits accrued
213 Of the general mass of wealth, Gunther observes, ut de pauperibus et advenis cives ditissimi redderentur, (Hist C P c 18; (Villehardouin, (No 132,) that
since the creation, ne fu tant gaaignié dans une ville; Baldwin, (Gesta, c 92,) ut
tantum tota non videatur possidere Latinitas.
214 Villehardouin, No 133–135 Instead of 400,000, there is a various reading
of 500,000 The Venetians had offered to take the whole booty, and to give 400
marks to each knight, 200 to each priest and horseman, and 100 to each footsoldier: they would have been great losers, (Le Beau, Hist du Bas Empire tom
xx p 506 I know not from whence).
215 At the council of Lyons (AD 1245) the English ambassadors stated the revenue of the crown as below that of the foreign clergy, which amounted to 60,000
marks a year, (Matthew Paris, p 451 Hume’s Hist of England, vol ii p 170).
216 The disorders of the sack of Constantinople, and his own adventures, are
feelingly described by Nicetas, p 367–369, and in the Status Urb C P p 375–384
His complaints, even of sacrilege, are justified by Innocent III, (Gesta, c 92;) but
Villehardouin does not betray a symptom of pity or remorse.
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to the conquerors from the three fires which annihilated so
vast a portion of the buildings and riches of the city? What
a stock of such things, as could neither be used nor transported, was maliciously or wantonly destroyed! How much
treasure was idly wasted in gaming, debauchery, and riot!
And what precious objects were bartered for a vile price by
the impatience or ignorance of the soldiers, whose reward
was stolen by the base industry of the last of the Greeks!
These alone, who had nothing to lose, might derive some
profit from the revolution; but the misery of the upper ranks
of society is strongly painted in the personal adventures of
Nicetas himself His stately palace had been reduced to ashes
in the second conflagration; and the senator, with his family and friends, found an obscure shelter in another house
which he possessed near the church of St. Sophia. It was
the door of this mean habitation that his friend, the Venetian
merchant, guarded in the disguise of a soldier, till Nicetas
could save, by a precipitate flight, the relics of his fortune and
the chastity of his daughter. In a cold, wintry season, these
fugitives, nursed in the lap of prosperity, departed on foot;
his wife was with child; the desertion of their slaves compelled them to carry their baggage on their own shoulders;
and their women, whom they placed in the centre, were exhorted to conceal their beauty with dirt, instead of adorning
it with paint and jewels Every step was exposed to insult and
danger: the threats of the strangers were less painful than the
taunts of the plebeians, with whom they were now levelled;
nor did the exiles breathe in safety till their mournful pilgrimage was concluded at Selymbria, above forty miles from the
capital. On the way they overtook the patriarch, without attendance and almost without apparel, riding on an ass, and
reduced to a state of apostolical poverty, which, had it been
voluntary, might perhaps have been meritorious. In the mean
while, his desolate churches were profaned by the licentiousness and party zeal of the Latins. After stripping the gems
and pearls, they converted the chalices into drinking-cups;
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their tables, on which they gamed and feasted, were covered
with the pictures of Christ and the saints; and they trampled
under foot the most venerable objects of the Christian worship. In the cathedral of St. Sophia, the ample veil of the
sanctuary was rent asunder for the sake of the golden fringe;
and the altar, a monument of art and riches, was broken in
pieces and shared among the captors. Their mules and horses
were laden with the wrought silver and gilt carvings, which
they tore down from the doors and pulpit; and if the beasts
stumbled under the burden, they were stabbed by their impatient drivers, and the holy pavement streamed with their
impure blood. A prostitute was seated on the throne of the
patriarch; and that daughter of Belial, as she is styled, sung
and danced in the church, to ridicule the hymns and processions of the Orientals. Nor were the repositories of the royal
dead secure from violation: in the church of the Apostles,
the tombs of the emperors were rifled; and it is said, that after six centuries the corpse of Justinian was found without
any signs of decay or putrefaction. In the streets, the French
and Flemings clothed themselves and their horses in painted
robes and flowing head-dresses of linen; and the coarse intemperance of their feasts217 insulted the splendid sobriety of
the East. To expose the arms of a people of scribes and scholars, they affected to display a pen, an inkhorn, and a sheet of
paper, without discerning that the instruments of science and
valor were alike feeble and useless in the hands of the modern
Greeks.
Their reputation and their language encouraged them,
however, to despise the ignorance and to overlook the
progress of the Latins.218 In the love of the arts, the national
217 If I rightly apprehend the Greek of Nicetas’s receipts, their favorite dishes
were boiled buttocks of beef, salt pork and peas, and soup made of garlic and
sharp or sour herbs, (p 382).
218 Nicetas uses very harsh expressions, par agrammatoiV BarbaroiV, kai
teleon analfabhtoiV, (Fragment, apud Fabric Bibliot Græc tom vi p 414) This
reproach, it is true, applies most strongly to their ignorance of Greek and of
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difference was still more obvious and real; the Greeks preserved with reverence the works of their ancestors, which
they could not imitate; and, in the destruction of the statues
of Constantinople, we are provoked to join in the complaints
and invectives of the Byzantine historian.219 We have seen
how the rising city was adorned by the vanity and despotism of the Imperial founder: in the ruins of paganism, some
gods and heroes were saved from the axe of superstition; and
the forum and hippodrome were dignified with the relics of
a better age. Several of these are described by Nicetas,220 in
a florid and affected style; and from his descriptions I shall
select some interesting particulars. 1. The victorious charioteers were cast in bronze, at their own or the public charge,
and fitly placed in the hippodrome: they stood aloft in their
chariots, wheeling round the goal: the spectators could admire their attitude, and judge of the resemblance; and of
these figures, the most perfect might have been transported
from the Olympic stadium. 2. The sphinx, river-horse, and
crocodile, denote the climate and manufacture of Egypt and
the spoils of that ancient province. 3. The she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus, a subject alike pleasing to the old
and the new Romans, but which could really be treated before
the decline of the Greek sculpture. 4. An eagle holding and
tearing a serpent in his talons, a domestic monument of the
Byzantines, which they ascribed, not to a human artist, but to
the magic power of the philosopher Apollonius, who, by this
Homer In their own language, the Latins of the xiith and xiiith centuries were
not destitute of literature See Harris’s Philological Inquiries, p iii c 9, 10, 11.
219 Nicetas was of Chonæ in Phrygia, (the old Colossæ of St Paul:) he raised
himself to the honors of senator, judge of the veil, and great logothete; beheld
the fall of the empire, retired to Nice, and composed an elaborate history from
the death of Alexius Comnenus to the reign of Henry.
220 A manuscript of Nicetas in the Bodleian library contains this curious fragment on the statues of Constantinople, which fraud, or shame, or rather carelessness, has dropped in the common editions It is published by Fabricius, (Bibliot Græc tom vi p 405–416,) and immoderately praised by the late ingenious
Mr Harris of Salisbury, (Philological Inquiries, p iii c 5, p 301–312).
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talisman, delivered the city from such venomous reptiles. 5.
An ass and his driver, which were erected by Augustus in his
colony of Nicopolis, to commemorate a verbal omen of the
victory of Actium. 6. An equestrian statue which passed, in
the vulgar opinion, for Joshua, the Jewish conqueror, stretching out his hand to stop the course of the descending sun. A
more classical tradition recognized the figures of Bellerophon
and Pegasus; and the free attitude of the steed seemed to
mark that he trod on air, rather than on the earth. 7. A square
and lofty obelisk of brass; the sides were embossed with a
variety of picturesque and rural scenes, birds singing; rustics laboring, or playing on their pipes; sheep bleating; lambs
skipping; the sea, and a scene of fish and fishing; little naked
cupids laughing, playing, and pelting each other with apples; and, on the summit, a female figure, turning with the
slightest breath, and thence denominated the wind’s attendant.
8. The Phrygian shepherd presenting to Venus the prize of
beauty, the apple of discord. 9. The incomparable statue of
Helen, which is delineated by Nicetas in the words of admiration and love: her well-turned feet, snowy arms, rosy lips, bewitching smiles, swimming eyes, arched eyebrows, the harmony of her shape, the lightness of her drapery, and her flowing locks that waved in the wind; a beauty that might have
moved her Barbarian destroyers to pity and remorse. 10. The
manly or divine form of Hercules,221 as he was restored to life
by the masterhand of Lysippus; of such magnitude, that his
thumb was equal to his waist, his leg to the stature, of a common man:222 his chest ample, his shoulders broad, his limbs
strong and muscular, his hair curled, his aspect commanding.
Without his bow, or quiver, or club, his lion’s skin carelessly
221 To illustrate the statue of Hercules, Mr Harris quotes a Greek epigram,
and engraves a beautiful gem, which does not, however, copy the attitude of
the statue: in the latter, Hercules had not his club, and his right leg and arm
were extended.
222 I transcribe these proportions, which appear to me inconsistent with each
other; and may possibly show, that the boasted taste of Nicetas was no more
than affectation and vanity.
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thrown over him, he was seated on an osier basket, his right
leg and arm stretched to the utmost, his left knee bent, and
supporting his elbow, his head reclining on his left hand, his
countenance indignant and pensive. 11. A colossal statue of
Juno, which had once adorned her temple of Samos, the enormous head by four yoke of oxen was laboriously drawn to
the palace. 12. Another colossus, of Pallas or Minerva, thirty
feet in height, and representing with admirable spirit the attributes and character of the martial maid. Before we accuse
the Latins, it is just to remark, that this Pallas was destroyed
after the first siege, by the fear and superstition of the Greeks
themselves.223 The other statues of brass which I have enumerated were broken and melted by the unfeeling avarice of
the crusaders: the cost and labor were consumed in a moment; the soul of genius evaporated in smoke; and the remnant of base metal was coined into money for the payment
of the troops. Bronze is not the most durable of monuments:
from the marble forms of Phidias and Praxiteles, the Latins
might turn aside with stupid contempt;224 but unless they
were crushed by some accidental injury, those useless stones
stood secure on their pedestals.225 The most enlightened of
the strangers, above the gross and sensual pursuits of their
countrymen, more piously exercised the right of conquest in
the search and seizure of the relics of the saints.226 Immense
was the supply of heads and bones, crosses and images, that
223 Nicetas in Isaaco Angelo et Alexio, c 3, p 359 The Latin editor very properly observes, that the historian, in his bombast style, produces ex pulice elephantem.
224 In two passages of Nicetas (edit Paris, p 360 Fabric p 408) the Latins are
branded with the lively reproach of oi tou kalou anerastoi barbaroi, and their
avarice of brass is clearly expressed Yet the Venetians had the merit of removing
four bronze horses from Constantinople to the place of St Mark, (Sanuto, Vite
del Dogi, in Muratori, Script Rerum Italicarum, tom xxii p 534).
225 Winckelman, Hist de l’Art tom iii p 269, 270.
226 See the pious robbery of the abbot Martin, who transferred a rich cargo to
his monastery of Paris, diocese of Basil, (Gunther, Hist C P c 19, 23, 24) Yet in
secreting this booty, the saint incurred an excommunication, and perhaps broke
his oath (Compare Wilken vol v p 308–M).
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were scattered by this revolution over the churches of Europe; and such was the increase of pilgrimage and oblation,
that no branch, perhaps, of more lucrative plunder was imported from the East.227 Of the writings of antiquity, many
that still existed in the twelfth century, are now lost. But the
pilgrims were not solicitous to save or transport the volumes
of an unknown tongue: the perishable substance of paper
or parchment can only be preserved by the multiplicity of
copies; the literature of the Greeks had almost centred in the
metropolis; and, without computing the extent of our loss,
we may drop a tear over the libraries that have perished in
the triple fire of Constantinople.228
227 Fleury,
Hist Eccles tom xvi p 139–145.
shall conclude this chapter with the notice of a modern history, which illustrates the taking of Constantinople by the Latins; but which has fallen somewhat late into my hands Paolo Ramusio, the son of the compiler of Voyages,
was directed by the senate of Venice to write the history of the conquest: and
this order, which he received in his youth, he executed in a mature age, by an
elegant Latin work, de Bello Constantinopolitano et Imperatoribus Comnenis
per Gallos et Venetos restitutis, (Venet 1635, in folio) Ramusio, or Rhamnusus,
transcribes and translates, sequitur ad unguem, a MS of Villehardouin, which
he possessed; but he enriches his narrative with Greek and Latin materials, and
we are indebted to him for a correct state of the fleet, the names of the fifty
Venetian nobles who commanded the galleys of the republic, and the patriot
opposition of Pantaleon Barbus to the choice of the doge for emperor.
228 I
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Chapter LXI
PARTITION O F T HE E MPIRE B Y T HE
F RENCH A ND V ENETIANS
Part I
Partition Of The Empire By The French And
Venetians,–
Five Latin Emperors Of The Houses Of Flanders
And Courtenay.–
Their Wars Against The Bulgarians And Greeks.–
Weakness And Poverty Of The Latin Empire.–
Recovery Of Constantinople By The Greeks.–
General Consequences Of The Crusades.
the death of the lawful princes, the French and
A Venetians,
confident of justice and victory, agreed to diFTER
vide and regulate their future possessions.229 It was stipulated by treaty, that twelve electors, six of either nation,
should be nominated; that a majority should choose the emperor of the East; and that, if the votes were equal, the decision of chance should ascertain the successful candidate.
To him, with all the titles and prerogatives of the Byzantine throne, they assigned the two palaces of Boucoleon and
Blachernæ, with a fourth part of the Greek monarchy. It was
defined that the three remaining portions should be equally
shared between the republic of Venice and the barons of
France; that each feudatory, with an honorable exception for
the doge, should acknowledge and perform the duties of
homage and military service to the supreme head of the empire; that the nation which gave an emperor, should resign to
their brethren the choice of a patriarch; and that the pilgrims,
whatever might be their impatience to visit the Holy Land,
should devote another year to the conquest and defence of
the Greek provinces. After the conquest of Constantinople
by the Latins, the treaty was confirmed and executed; and
229 See the original treaty of partition, in the Venetian Chronicle of Andrew
Dandolo, p 326–330, and the subsequent election in Ville hardouin, No 136–140,
with Ducange in his Observations, and the book of his Histoire de Constantinople sous l’Empire des François.
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PART I
the first and most important step was the creation of an emperor. The six electors of the French nation were all ecclesiastics, the abbot of Loces, the archbishop elect of Acre in
Palestine, and the bishops of Troyes, Soissons, Halberstadt,
and Bethlehem, the last of whom exercised in the camp the
office of pope’s legate: their profession and knowledge were
respectable; and as they could not be the objects, they were
best qualified to be the authors of the choice. The six Venetians were the principal servants of the state, and in this list
the noble families of Querini and Contarini are still proud to
discover their ancestors. The twelve assembled in the chapel
of the palace; and after the solemn invocation of the Holy
Ghost, they proceeded to deliberate and vote. A just impulse
of respect and gratitude prompted them to crown the virtues
of the doge; his wisdom had inspired their enterprise; and the
most youthful knights might envy and applaud the exploits
of blindness and age. But the patriot Dandolo was devoid
of all personal ambition, and fully satisfied that he had been
judged worthy to reign. His nomination was overruled by
the Venetians themselves: his countrymen, and perhaps his
friends,230 represented, with the eloquence of truth, the mischiefs that might arise to national freedom and the common
cause, from the union of two incompatible characters, of the
first magistrate of a republic and the emperor of the East. The
exclusion of the doge left room for the more equal merits of
Boniface and Baldwin; and at their names all meaner candidates respectfully withdrew. The marquis of Montferrat was
recommended by his mature age and fair reputation, by the
choice of the adventurers, and the wishes of the Greeks; nor
can I believe that Venice, the mistress of the sea, could be seriously apprehensive of a petty lord at the foot of the Alps.231
230 After mentioning the nomination of the doge by a French elector his kinsman Andrew Dandolo approves his exclusion, quidam Venetorum fidelis et
nobilis senex, usus oratione satis probabili, &c, which has been embroidered
by modern writers from Blondus to Le Beau.
231 Nicetas, (p 384,) with the vain ignorance of a Greek, describes the marquis
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CHAPTER LXI
PART I
But the count of Flanders was the chief of a wealthy and warlike people: he was valiant, pious, and chaste; in the prime of
life, since he was only thirty-two years of age; a descendant of
Charlemagne, a cousin of the king of France, and a compeer
of the prelates and barons who had yielded with reluctance
to the command of a foreigner. Without the chapel, these
barons, with the doge and marquis at their head, expected
the decision of the twelve electors. It was announced by the
bishop of Soissons, in the name of his colleagues: “Ye have
sworn to obey the prince whom we should choose: by our
unanimous suffrage, Baldwin count of Flanders and Hainault is now your sovereign, and the emperor of the East.” He
was saluted with loud applause, and the proclamation was
reechoed through the city by the joy of the Latins, and the
trembling adulation of the Greeks. Boniface was the first to
kiss the hand of his rival, and to raise him on the buckler:
and Baldwin was transported to the cathedral, and solemnly
invested with the purple buskins. At the end of three weeks
he was crowned by the legate, in the vacancy of the patriarch;
but the Venetian clergy soon filled the chapter of St. Sophia,
seated Thomas Morosini on the ecclesiastical throne, and employed every art to perpetuate in their own nation the honors
and benefices of the Greek church.232 Without delay the successor of Constantine instructed Palestine, France, and Rome,
of this memorable revolution. To Palestine he sent, as a trophy, the gates of Constantinople, and the chain of the harbor;233 and adopted, from the Assise of Jerusalem, the laws
or customs best adapted to a French colony and conquest in
of Montferrat as a maritime power Dampardian de oikeisqai paralion Was he
deceived by the Byzantine theme of Lombardy which extended along the coast
of Calabria?.
232 They exacted an oath from Thomas Morosini to appoint no canons of St
Sophia the lawful electors, except Venetians who had lived ten years at Venice,
&c But the foreign clergy was envious, the pope disapproved this national
monopoly, and of the six Latin patriarchs of Constantinople, only the first and
the last were Venetians.
233 Nicetas, p 383.
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PART I
the East. In his epistles, the natives of France are encouraged
to swell that colony, and to secure that conquest, to people
a magnificent city and a fertile land, which will reward the
labors both of the priest and the soldier. He congratulates
the Roman pontiff on the restoration of his authority in the
East; invites him to extinguish the Greek schism by his presence in a general council; and implores his blessing and forgiveness for the disobedient pilgrims. Prudence and dignity
are blended in the answer of Innocent.234 In the subversion
of the Byzantine empire, he arraigns the vices of man, and
adores the providence of God; the conquerors will be absolved or condemned by their future conduct; the validity
of their treaty depends on the judgment of St. Peter; but he
inculcates their most sacred duty of establishing a just subordination of obedience and tribute, from the Greeks to the
Latins, from the magistrate to the clergy, and from the clergy
to the pope.
In the division of the Greek provinces,235 the share of the
Venetians was more ample than that of the Latin emperor.
No more than one fourth was appropriated to his domain;
a clear moiety of the remainder was reserved for Venice;
and the other moiety was distributed among the adventures
of France and Lombardy. The venerable Dandolo was proclaimed despot of Romania, and invested after the Greek
fashion with the purple buskins. He ended at Constantinople his long and glorious life; and if the prerogative was personal, the title was used by his successors till the middle of
the fourteenth century, with the singular, though true, addi234 The Epistles of Innocent III are a rich fund for the ecclesiastical and civil
institution of the Latin empire of Constantinople; and the most important of
these epistles (of which the collection in 2 vols in folio is published by Stephen
Baluze) are inserted in his Gesta, in Muratori, Script Rerum Italicarum, tom iii
p l c 94–105.
235 In the treaty of partition, most of the names are corrupted by the scribes:
they might be restored, and a good map, suited to the last age of the Byzantine empire, would be an improvement of geography But, alas D’Anville is no
more!.
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PART I
tion of lords of one fourth and a half of the Roman empire.236
The doge, a slave of state, was seldom permitted to depart
from the helm of the republic; but his place was supplied by
the bail, or regent, who exercised a supreme jurisdiction over
the colony of Venetians: they possessed three of the eight
quarters of the city; and his independent tribunal was composed of six judges, four counsellors, two chamberlains two
fiscal advocates, and a constable. Their long experience of
the Eastern trade enabled them to select their portion with
discernment: they had rashly accepted the dominion and defence of Adrianople; but it was the more reasonable aim of
their policy to form a chain of factories, and cities, and islands, along the maritime coast, from the neighborhood of
Ragusa to the Hellespont and the Bosphorus. The labor and
cost of such extensive conquests exhausted their treasury:
they abandoned their maxims of government, adopted a feudal system, and contented themselves with the homage of
their nobles,237 for the possessions which these private vassals undertook to reduce and maintain. And thus it was that
the family of Sanut acquired the duchy of Naxos, which involved the greatest part of the archipelago. For the price of
ten thousand marks, the republic purchased of the marquis
of Montferrat the fertile Island of Crete or Candia, with the
ruins of a hundred cities;238 but its improvement was stinted
by the proud and narrow spirit of an aristocracy;239 and the
236 Their style was dominus quartæ partis et dimidiæ imperii Romani, till Giovanni Dolfino, who was elected doge in the year of 1356, (Sanuto, p 530, 641)
For the government of Constantinople, see Ducange, Histoire de C P i 37.
237 Ducange (Hist de C P ii 6) has marked the conquests made by the state
or nobles of Venice of the Islands of Candia, Corfu, Cephalonia, Zante, Naxos,
Paros, Melos, Andros, Mycone, Syro, Cea, and Lemnos.
238 Boniface sold the Isle of Candia, August 12, AD 1204 See the act in Sanuto,
p 533: but I cannot understand how it could be his mother’s portion, or how
she could be the daughter of an emperor Alexius.
239 In the year 1212, the doge Peter Zani sent a colony to Candia, drawn from
every quarter of Venice But in their savage manners and frequent rebellions,
the Candiots may be compared to the Corsicans under the yoke of Genoa; and
when I compare the accounts of Belon and Tournefort, I cannot discern much
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CHAPTER LXI
PART I
wisest senators would confess that the sea, not the land, was
the treasury of St. Mark. In the moiety of the adventurers
the marquis Boniface might claim the most liberal reward;
and, besides the Isle of Crete, his exclusion from the throne
was compensated by the royal title and the provinces beyond
the Hellespont. But he prudently exchanged that distant and
difficult conquest for the kingdom of Thessalonica Macedonia, twelve days’ journey from the capital, where he might be
supported by the neighboring powers of his brother-in-law
the king of Hungary. His progress was hailed by the voluntary or reluctant acclamations of the natives; and Greece,
the proper and ancient Greece, again received a Latin conqueror,240 who trod with indifference that classic ground.
He viewed with a careless eye the beauties of the valley of
Tempe; traversed with a cautious step the straits of Thermopylæ; occupied the unknown cities of Thebes, Athens,
and Argos; and assaulted the fortifications of Corinth and
Napoli,241 which resisted his arms. The lots of the Latin pilgrims were regulated by chance, or choice, or subsequent exchange; and they abused, with intemperate joy, their triumph
over the lives and fortunes of a great people. After a minute
survey of the provinces, they weighed in the scales of avarice
the revenue of each district, the advantage of the situation,
and the ample on scanty supplies for the maintenance of soldiers and horses. Their presumption claimed and divided the
long-lost dependencies of the Roman sceptre: the Nile and
Euphrates rolled through their imaginary realms; and happy
difference between the Venetian and the Turkish island.
240 Villehardouin (No 159, 160, 173–177) and Nicetas (p 387–394) describe the
expedition into Greece of the marquis Boniface The Choniate might derive his
information from his brother Michael, archbishop of Athens, whom he paints as
an orator, a statesman, and a saint His encomium of Athens, and the description
of Tempe, should be published from the Bodleian MS of Nicetas, (Fabric Bibliot
Græc tom vi p 405,) and would have deserved Mr Harris’s inquiries.
241 Napoli de Romania, or Nauplia, the ancient seaport of Argos, is still a place
of strength and consideration, situate on a rocky peninsula, with a good harbor,
(Chandler’s Travels into Greece, p 227).
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PART I
was the warrior who drew for his prize the palace of the Turkish sultan of Iconium.242 I shall not descend to the pedigree
of families and the rent-roll of estates, but I wish to specify
that the counts of Blois and St. Pol were invested with the
duchy of Nice and the lordship of Demotica:243 the principal
fiefs were held by the service of constable, chamberlain, cupbearer, butler, and chief cook; and our historian, Jeffrey of
Villehardouin, obtained a fair establishment on the banks of
the Hebrus, and united the double office of marshal of Champagne and Romania. At the head of his knights and archers,
each baron mounted on horseback to secure the possession
of his share, and their first efforts were generally successful.
But the public force was weakened by their dispersion; and a
thousand quarrels must arise under a law, and among men,
whose sole umpire was the sword. Within three months after
the conquest of Constantinople, the emperor and the king of
Thessalonica drew their hostile followers into the field; they
were reconciled by the authority of the doge, the advice of
the marshal, and the firm freedom of their peers.244
242 I have softened the expression of Nicetas, who strives to expose the presumption of the Franks See the Rebus post C P expugnatam, p 375–384.
243 A city surrounded by the River Hebrus, and six leagues to the south of
Adrianople, received from its double wall the Greek name of Didymoteichos,
insensibly corrupted into Demotica and Dimot I have preferred the more convenient and modern appellation of Demotica This place was the last Turkish
residence of Charles XII.
244 Their quarrel is told by Villehardouin (No 146–158) with the spirit of freedom The merit and reputation of the marshal are so acknowledged by the
Greek historian (p 387) mega para touV tvn Dauinwn dunamenou strateumasi:
unlike some modern heroes, whose exploits are only visible in their own memoirs * Note: William de Champlite, brother of the count of Dijon, assumed the
title of Prince of Achaia: on the death of his brother, he returned, with regret,
to France, to assume his paternal inheritance, and left Villehardouin his ”bailli,”
on condition that if he did not return within a year Villehardouin was to retain an investiture Brosset’s Add to Le Beau, vol xvii p 200 M Brosset adds,
from the Greek chronicler edited by M Buchon, the somewhat unknightly trick
by which Villehardouin disembarrassed himself from the troublesome claim
of Robert, the cousin of the count of Dijon to the succession He contrived that
Robert should arrive just fifteen days too late; and with the general concurrence
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PART I
Two fugitives, who had reigned at Constantinople, still asserted the title of emperor; and the subjects of their fallen
throne might be moved to pity by the misfortunes of the elder Alexius, or excited to revenge by the spirit of Mourzoufle. A domestic alliance, a common interest, a similar guilt,
and the merit of extinguishing his enemies, a brother and a
nephew, induced the more recent usurper to unite with the
former the relics of his power. Mourzoufle was received with
smiles and honors in the camp of his father Alexius; but the
wicked can never love, and should rarely trust, their fellowcriminals; he was seized in the bath, deprived of his eyes,
stripped of his troops and treasures, and turned out to wander an object of horror and contempt to those who with more
propriety could hate, and with more justice could punish, the
assassin of the emperor Isaac and his son. As the tyrant, pursued by fear or remorse, was stealing over to Asia, he was
seized by the Latins of Constantinople, and condemned, after
an open trial, to an ignominious death. His judges debated
the mode of his execution, the axe, the wheel, or the stake;
and it was resolved that Mourzoufle245 should ascend the
Theodosian column, a pillar of white marble of one hundred
and forty-seven feet in height.246 From the summit he was
cast down headlong, and dashed in pieces on the pavement,
in the presence of innumerable spectators, who filled the forum of Taurus, and admired the accomplishment of an old
prediction, which was explained by this singular event.247
of the assembled knights was himself invested with the principality Ibid p 283
M.
245 See the fate of Mourzoufle in Nicetas, (p 393,) Villehardouin, (No 141–
145, 163,) and Guntherus, (c 20, 21) Neither the marshal nor the monk afford
a grain of pity for a tyrant or rebel, whose punishment, however, was more
unexampled than his crime.
246 The column of Arcadius, which represents in basso relievo his victories,
or those of his father Theodosius, is still extant at Constantinople It is described and measured, Gyllius, (Topograph iv 7,) Banduri, (ad l i Antiquit C
P p 507, &c,) and Tournefort, (Voyage du Levant, tom ii lettre xii p 231) (Compare Wilken, note, vol v p 388–M).
247 The nonsense of Gunther and the modern Greeks concerning this columna
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PART I
The fate of Alexius is less tragical: he was sent by the marquis a captive to Italy, and a gift to the king of the Romans;
but he had not much to applaud his fortune, if the sentence of
imprisonment and exile were changed from a fortress in the
Alps to a monastery in Asia. But his daughter, before the national calamity, had been given in marriage to a young hero
who continued the succession, and restored the throne, of the
Greek princes.248 The valor of Theodore Lascaris was signalized in the two sieges of Constantinople. After the flight
of Mourzoufle, when the Latins were already in the city, he
offered himself as their emperor to the soldiers and people;
and his ambition, which might be virtuous, was undoubtedly
brave. Could he have infused a soul into the multitude, they
might have crushed the strangers under their feet: their abject despair refused his aid; and Theodore retired to breathe
the air of freedom in Anatolia, beyond the immediate view
and pursuit of the conquerors. Under the title, at first of
despot, and afterwards of emperor, he drew to his standard
the bolder spirits, who were fortified against slavery by the
contempt of life; and as every means was lawful for the public safety implored without scruple the alliance of the Turkish
sultan Nice, where Theodore established his residence, Prusa
and Philadelphia, Smyrna and Ephesus, opened their gates
to their deliverer: he derived strength and reputation from
fatidica, is unworthy of notice; but it is singular enough, that fifty years before
the Latin conquest, the poet Tzetzes, (Chiliad, ix 277) relates the dream of a matron, who saw an army in the forum, and a man sitting on the column, clapping
his hands, and uttering a loud exclamation * Note: We read in the “Chronicle
of the Conquest of Constantinople, and of the Establishment of the French in
the Morea,” translated by J A Buchon, Paris, 1825, p 64 that Leo VI, called the
Philosopher, had prophesied that a perfidious emperor should be precipitated
from the top of this column The crusaders considered themselves under an obligation to fulfil this prophecy Brosset, note on Le Beau, vol xvii p 180 M Brosset
announces that a complete edition of this work, of which the original Greek of
the first book only has been published by M Buchon in preparation, to form
part of the new series of the Byzantine historian–M.
248 The dynasties of Nice, Trebizond, and Epirus (of which Nicetas saw the
origin without much pleasure or hope) are learnedly explored, and clearly represented, in the Familiæ Byzantinæ of Ducange.
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PART I
his victories, and even from his defeats; and the successor
of Constantine preserved a fragment of the empire from the
banks of the Mæander to the suburbs of Nicomedia, and at
length of Constantinople. Another portion, distant and obscure, was possessed by the lineal heir of the Comneni, a son
of the virtuous Manuel, a grandson of the tyrant Andronicus. His name was Alexius; and the epithet of great249 was
applied perhaps to his stature, rather than to his exploits.
By the indulgence of the Angeli, he was appointed governor or duke of Trebizond:250251 his birth gave him ambition,
the revolution independence; and, without changing his title, he reigned in peace from Sinope to the Phasis, along the
coast of the Black Sea. His nameless son and successor252 is
249 This was a title, not a personal appellation Joinville speaks of the “Grant
Comnenie, et sire de Traffezzontes” Fallmerayer, p 82–M.
250 Except some facts in Pachymer and Nicephorus Gregoras, which will hereafter be used, the Byzantine writers disdain to speak of the empire of Trebizond,
or principality of the Lazi; and among the Latins, it is conspicuous only in the
romancers of the xivth or xvth centuries Yet the indefatigable Ducange has dug
out (Fam Byz p 192) two authentic passages in Vincent of Beauvais (l xxxi c 144)
and the prothonotary Ogerius, (apud Wading, AD 1279, No 4).
251 On the revolutions of Trebizond under the later empire down to this period, see Fallmerayer, Geschichte des Kaiserthums von Trapezunt, ch iii The
wife of Manuel fled with her infant sons and her treasure from the relentless
enmity of Isaac Angelus Fallmerayer conjectures that her arrival enabled the
Greeks of that region to make head against the formidable Thamar, the Georgian queen of Teflis, p 42 They gradually formed a dominion on the banks of the
Phasis, which the distracted government of the Angeli neglected or were unable to suppress On the capture of Constantinople by the Latins, Alexius was
joined by many noble fugitives from Constantinople He had always retained
the names of Cæsar and BasileuV He now fixed the seat of his empire at Trebizond; but he had never abandoned his pretensions to the Byzantine throne,
ch iii Fallmerayer appears to make out a triumphant case as to the assumption
of the royal title by Alexius the First Since the publication of M Fallmerayer’s
work, (München, 1827,) M Tafel has published, at the end of the opuscula of
Eustathius, a curious chronicle of Trebizond by Michael Panaretas, (Frankfort,
1832) It gives the succession of the emperors, and some other curious circumstances of their wars with the several Mahometan powers–M.
252 The successor of Alexius was his son-in-law Andronicus I, of the Comnenian family, surnamed Gidon There were five successions between Alexius
and John, according to Fallmerayer, p 103 The troops of Trebizond fought in
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PART I
described as the vassal of the sultan, whom he served with
two hundred lances: that Comnenian prince was no more
than duke of Trebizond, and the title of emperor was first
assumed by the pride and envy of the grandson of Alexius.
In the West, a third fragment was saved from the common
shipwreck by Michael, a bastard of the house of Angeli, who,
before the revolution, had been known as a hostage, a soldier,
and a rebel. His flight from the camp of the marquis Boniface
secured his freedom; by his marriage with the governor’s
daughter, he commanded the important place of Durazzo, assumed the title of despot, and founded a strong and conspicuous principality in Epirus, Ætolia, and Thessaly, which have
ever been peopled by a warlike race. The Greeks, who had offered their service to their new sovereigns, were excluded by
the haughty Latins253 from all civil and military honors, as a
nation born to tremble and obey. Their resentment prompted
them to show that they might have been useful friends, since
they could be dangerous enemies: their nerves were braced
by adversity: whatever was learned or holy, whatever was
noble or valiant, rolled away into the independent states of
Trebizond, Epirus, and Nice; and a single patrician is marked
by the ambiguous praise of attachment and loyalty to the
Franks. The vulgar herd of the cities and the country would
have gladly submitted to a mild and regular servitude; and
the transient disorders of war would have been obliterated
by some years of industry and peace. But peace was banished, and industry was crushed, in the disorders of the feuthe army of Dschelaleddin, the Karismian, against Alaleddin, the Seljukian sultan of Roum, but as allies rather than vassals, p 107 It was after the defeat of
Dschelaleddin that they furnished their contingent to Alai-eddin Fallmerayer
struggles in vain to mitigate this mark of the subjection of the Comneni to the
sultan p 116–M.
253 The portrait of the French Latins is drawn in Nicetas by the hand of prejudice and resentment: ουδεν τvν αλλων εχνvν ει῞ ΄`Αρεο῞;ργα παρασυμβεβλησχαι
σθισιν ηνειςοντο αλλ΄ ουδε τι῞ τvν ςαριτων η τvν;μουσvν παρα τοι῞ βαρβαροι῞ τουτοι῞
επεξενιζετο, και παρα τουτο οιμαι την θυσιν ησαν ανημεροι, και τον ξολον ειξον
του λογου πρστρεςοντα (p 791 Ed Bek).
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dal system. The Roman emperors of Constantinople, if they
were endowed with abilities, were armed with power for the
protection of their subjects: their laws were wise, and their
administration was simple. The Latin throne was filled by
a titular prince, the chief, and often the servant, of his licentious confederates; the fiefs of the empire, from a kingdom to
a castle, were held and ruled by the sword of the barons; and
their discord, poverty, and ignorance, extended the ramifications of tyranny to the most sequestered villages. The Greeks
were oppressed by the double weight of the priest, who were
invested with temporal power, and of the soldier, who was
inflamed by fanatic hatred; and the insuperable bar of religion and language forever separated the stranger and the native. As long as the crusaders were united at Constantinople, the memory of their conquest, and the terror of their
arms, imposed silence on the captive land: their dispersion
betrayed the smallness of their numbers and the defects of
their discipline; and some failures and mischances revealed
the secret, that they were not invincible. As the fears of the
Greeks abated, their hatred increased. They murdered; they
conspired; and before a year of slavery had elapsed, they implored, or accepted, the succor of a Barbarian, whose power
they had felt, and whose gratitude they trusted.254
The Latin conquerors had been saluted with a solemn and
early embassy from John, or Joannice, or Calo-John, the revolted chief of the Bulgarians and Walachians. He deemed
himself their brother, as the votary of the Roman pontiff, from
whom he had received the regal title and a holy banner; and
in the subversion of the Greek monarchy, he might aspire
to the name of their friend and accomplice. But Calo-John
was astonished to find, that the Count of Flanders had assumed the pomp and pride of the successors of Constantine;
254 I here begin to use, with freedom and confidence, the eight books of the
Histoire de C P sous l’Empire des François, which Ducange has given as a supplement to Villehardouin; and which, in a barbarous style, deserves the praise
of an original and classic work.
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and his ambassadors were dismissed with a haughty message, that the rebel must deserve a pardon, by touching with
his forehead the footstool of the Imperial throne. His resentment255 would have exhaled in acts of violence and blood:
his cooler policy watched the rising discontent of the Greeks;
affected a tender concern for their sufferings; and promised,
that their first struggles for freedom should be supported by
his person and kingdom. The conspiracy was propagated
by national hatred, the firmest band of association and secrecy: the Greeks were impatient to sheathe their daggers
in the breasts of the victorious strangers; but the execution
was prudently delayed, till Henry, the emperor’s brother, had
transported the flower of his troops beyond the Hellespont.
Most of the towns and villages of Thrace were true to the
moment and the signal; and the Latins, without arms or suspicion, were slaughtered by the vile and merciless revenge
of their slaves. From Demotica, the first scene of the massacre, the surviving vassals of the count of St. Pol escaped to
Adrianople; but the French and Venetians, who occupied that
city, were slain or expelled by the furious multitude: the garrisons that could effect their retreat fell back on each other
towards the metropolis; and the fortresses, that separately
stood against the rebels, were ignorant of each other’s and of
their sovereign’s fate. The voice of fame and fear announced
the revolt of the Greeks and the rapid approach of their Bulgarian ally; and Calo-John, not depending on the forces of
his own kingdom, had drawn from the Scythian wilderness
a body of fourteen thousand Comans, who drank, as it was
said, the blood of their captives, and sacrificed the Christians
on the altars of their gods.256
255 In Calo-John’s answer to the pope we may find his claims and complaints,
(Gesta Innocent III c 108, 109:) he was cherished at Rome as the prodigal son.
256 The Comans were a Tartar or Turkman horde, which encamped in the xiith
and xiiith centuries on the verge of Moldavia The greater part were pagans, but
some were Mahometans, and the whole horde was converted to Christianity
(AD 1370) by Lewis, king of Hungary.
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Alarmed by this sudden and growing danger, the emperor
despatched a swift messenger to recall Count Henry and his
troops; and had Baldwin expected the return of his gallant
brother, with a supply of twenty thousand Armenians, he
might have encountered the invader with equal numbers and
a decisive superiority of arms and discipline. But the spirit of
chivalry could seldom discriminate caution from cowardice;
and the emperor took the field with a hundred and forty
knights, and their train of archers and sergeants. The marshal, who dissuaded and obeyed, led the vanguard in their
march to Adrianople; the main body was commanded by the
count of Blois; the aged doge of Venice followed with the rear;
and their scanty numbers were increased from all sides by
the fugitive Latins. They undertook to besiege the rebels of
Adrianople; and such was the pious tendency of the crusades
that they employed the holy week in pillaging the country
for their subsistence, and in framing engines for the destruction of their fellow-Christians. But the Latins were soon interrupted and alarmed by the light cavalry of the Comans,
who boldly skirmished to the edge of their imperfect lines:
and a proclamation was issued by the marshal of Romania,
that, on the trumpet’s sound, the cavalry should mount and
form; but that none, under pain of death, should abandon
themselves to a desultory and dangerous pursuit. This wise
injunction was first disobeyed by the count of Blois, who involved the emperor in his rashness and ruin. The Comans,
of the Parthian or Tartar school, fled before their first charge;
but after a career of two leagues, when the knights and their
horses were almost breathless, they suddenly turned, rallied,
and encompassed the heavy squadrons of the Franks. The
count was slain on the field; the emperor was made prisoner;
and if the one disdained to fly, if the other refused to yield,
their personal bravery made a poor atonement for their ignorance, or neglect, of the duties of a general.257
257 Nicetas,
from ignorance or malice, imputes the defeat to the cowardice
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Part II
of his victory and his royal prize, the Bulgarian adP
vanced to relieve Adrianople and achieve the destruction
of the Latins. They must inevitably have been destroyed, if
ROUD
the marshal of Romania had not displayed a cool courage and
consummate skill; uncommon in all ages, but most uncommon in those times, when war was a passion, rather than a
science. His grief and fears were poured into the firm and
faithful bosom of the doge; but in the camp he diffused an assurance of safety, which could only be realized by the general
belief. All day he maintained his perilous station between
the city and the Barbarians: Villehardouin decamped in silence at the dead of night; and his masterly retreat of three
days would have deserved the praise of Xenophon and the
ten thousand. In the rear, the marshal supported the weight
of the pursuit; in the front, he moderated the impatience of
the fugitives; and wherever the Comans approached, they
were repelled by a line of impenetrable spears. On the third
day, the weary troops beheld the sea, the solitary town of Rodosta,258 and their friends, who had landed from the Asiatic
shore. They embraced, they wept; but they united their arms
and counsels; and in his brother’s absence, Count Henry assumed the regency of the empire, at once in a state of childof Dandolo, (p 383;) but Villehardouin shares his own glory with his venerable friend, qui viels home ére et gote ne veoit, mais mult ére sages et preus et
vigueros, (No 193) * Note: Gibbon appears to me to have misapprehended the
passage of Nicetas He says, “that principal and subtlest mischief that primary
cause of all the horrible miseries suffered by the Romans,” i e the Byzantines It
is an effusion of malicious triumph against the Venetians, to whom he always
ascribes the capture of Constantinople–M.
258 The truth of geography, and the original text of Villehardouin, (No 194,)
place Rodosto three days’ journey (trois jornées) from Adrianople: but Vigenere, in his version, has most absurdly substituted trois heures; and this error, which is not corrected by Ducange has entrapped several moderns, whose
names I shall spare.
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hood and caducity.259 If the Comans withdrew from the summer heats, seven thousand Latins, in the hour of danger, deserted Constantinople, their brethren, and their vows. Some
partial success was overbalanced by the loss of one hundred
and twenty knights in the field of Rusium; and of the Imperial domain, no more was left than the capital, with two or
three adjacent fortresses on the shores of Europe and Asia.
The king of Bulgaria was resistless and inexorable; and CaloJohn respectfully eluded the demands of the pope, who conjured his new proselyte to restore peace and the emperor
to the afflicted Latins. The deliverance of Baldwin was no
longer, he said, in the power of man: that prince had died in
prison; and the manner of his death is variously related by
ignorance and credulity. The lovers of a tragic legend will
be pleased to hear, that the royal captive was tempted by the
amorous queen of the Bulgarians; that his chaste refusal exposed him to the falsehood of a woman and the jealousy of a
savage; that his hands and feet were severed from his body;
that his bleeding trunk was cast among the carcasses of dogs
and horses; and that he breathed three days, before he was
devoured by the birds of prey.260 About twenty years afterwards, in a wood of the Netherlands, a hermit announced
himself as the true Baldwin, the emperor of Constantinople,
and lawful sovereign of Flanders. He related the wonders of
his escape, his adventures, and his penance, among a people
prone to believe and to rebel; and, in the first transport, Flanders acknowledged her long-lost sovereign. A short exam259 The reign and end of Baldwin are related by Villehardouin and Nicetas,
(p 386–416;) and their omissions are supplied by Ducange in his Observations,
and to the end of his first book.
260 After brushing away all doubtful and improbable circumstances, we may
prove the death of Baldwin, 1 By the firm belief of the French barons, (Villehardouin, No 230) 2 By the declaration of Calo-John himself, who excuses his
not releasing the captive emperor, quia debitum carnis exsolverat cum carcere
teneretur, (Gesta Innocent III c 109) * Note: Compare Von Raumer Geschichte
der Hohenstaufen, vol ii p 237 Petitot, in his preface to Villehardouin in the
Collection des Mémoires, relatifs a l’Histoire de France, tom i p 85, expresses
his belief in the first part of the “tragic legend”–M.
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ination before the French court detected the impostor, who
was punished with an ignominious death; but the Flemings
still adhered to the pleasing error; and the countess Jane is accused by the gravest historians of sacrificing to her ambition
the life of an unfortunate father.261
In all civilized hostility, a treaty is established for the exchange or ransom of prisoners; and if their captivity be prolonged, their condition is known, and they are treated according to their rank with humanity or honor. But the savage
Bulgarian was a stranger to the laws of war: his prisons were
involved in darkness and silence; and above a year elapsed
before the Latins could be assured of the death of Baldwin,
before his brother, the regent Henry, would consent to assume the title of emperor. His moderation was applauded
by the Greeks as an act of rare and inimitable virtue. Their
light and perfidious ambition was eager to seize or anticipate the moment of a vacancy, while a law of succession, the
guardian both of the prince and people, was gradually defined and confirmed in the hereditary monarchies of Europe.
In the support of the Eastern empire, Henry was gradually
left without an associate, as the heroes of the crusade retired
from the world or from the war. The doge of Venice, the venerable Dandolo, in the fulness of years and glory, sunk into
the grave. The marquis of Montferrat was slowly recalled
from the Peloponnesian war to the revenge of Baldwin and
the defence of Thessalonica. Some nice disputes of feudal
homage and service were reconciled in a personal interview
between the emperor and the king; they were firmly united
by mutual esteem and the common danger; and their alliance
was sealed by the nuptials of Henry with the daughter of
the Italian prince. He soon deplored the loss of his friend
and father. At the persuasion of some faithful Greeks, Boniface made a bold and successful inroad among the hills of
261 See the story of this impostor from the French and Flemish writers in
Ducange, Hist de C P iii 9; and the ridiculous fables that were believed by the
monks of St Alban’s, in Matthew Paris, Hist Major, p 271, 272.
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Rhodope: the Bulgarians fled on his approach; they assembled to harass his retreat. On the intelligence that his rear
was attacked, without waiting for any defensive armor, he
leaped on horseback, couched his lance, and drove the enemies before him; but in the rash pursuit he was pierced with a
mortal wound; and the head of the king of Thessalonica was
presented to Calo-John, who enjoyed the honors, without the
merit, of victory. It is here, at this melancholy event, that the
pen or the voice of Jeffrey of Villehardouin seems to drop or
to expire;262 and if he still exercised his military office of marshal of Romania, his subsequent exploits are buried in oblivion.263 The character of Henry was not unequal to his arduous situation: in the siege of Constantinople, and beyond the
Hellespont, he had deserved the fame of a valiant knight and
a skilful commander; and his courage was tempered with a
degree of prudence and mildness unknown to his impetuous brother. In the double war against the Greeks of Asia
and the Bulgarians of Europe, he was ever the foremost on
shipboard or on horseback; and though he cautiously provided for the success of his arms, the drooping Latins were
often roused by his example to save and to second their fearless emperor. But such efforts, and some supplies of men
and money from France, were of less avail than the errors,
the cruelty, and death, of their most formidable adversary.
When the despair of the Greek subjects invited Calo-John as
their deliverer, they hoped that he would protect their liberty and adopt their laws: they were soon taught to compare
the degrees of national ferocity, and to execrate the savage
262 Villehardouin, No 257 I quote, with regret, this lamentable conclusion,
where we lose at once the original history, and the rich illustrations of Ducange
The last pages may derive some light from Henry’s two epistles to Innocent III,
(Gesta, c 106, 107).
263 The marshal was alive in 1212, but he probably died soon afterwards,
without returning to France, (Ducange, Observations sur Villehardouin, p 238)
His fief of Messinople, the gift of Boniface, was the ancient Maximianopolis,
which flourished in the time of Ammianus Marcellinus, among the cities of
Thrace, (No 141).
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conqueror, who no longer dissembled his intention of dispeopling Thrace, of demolishing the cities, and of transplanting the inhabitants beyond the Danube. Many towns and
villages of Thrace were already evacuated: a heap of ruins
marked the place of Philippopolis, and a similar calamity was
expected at Demotica and Adrianople, by the first authors of
the revolt. They raised a cry of grief and repentance to the
throne of Henry; the emperor alone had the magnanimity to
forgive and trust them. No more than four hundred knights,
with their sergeants and archers, could be assembled under
his banner; and with this slender force he fought264 and repulsed the Bulgarian, who, besides his infantry, was at the
head of forty thousand horse. In this expedition, Henry felt
the difference between a hostile and a friendly country: the
remaining cities were preserved by his arms; and the savage,
with shame and loss, was compelled to relinquish his prey.
The siege of Thessalonica was the last of the evils which CaloJohn inflicted or suffered: he was stabbed in the night in his
tent; and the general, perhaps the assassin, who found him
weltering in his blood, ascribed the blow, with general applause, to the lance of St. Demetrius.265 After several victories, the prudence of Henry concluded an honorable peace
with the successor of the tyrant, and with the Greek princes
of Nice and Epirus. If he ceded some doubtful limits, an ample kingdom was reserved for himself and his feudatories;
and his reign, which lasted only ten years, afforded a short
interval of prosperity and peace. Far above the narrow policy of Baldwin and Boniface, he freely intrusted to the Greeks
264 There was no battle On the advance of the Latins, John suddenly broke
up his camp and retreated The Latins considered this unexpected deliverance
almost a miracle Le Beau suggests the probability that the detection of the Comans, who usually quitted the camp during the heats of summer, may have
caused the flight of the Bulgarians Nicetas, c 8 Villebardouin, c 225 Le Beau, vol
xvii p 242–M.
265 The church of this patron of Thessalonica was served by the canons of
the holy sepulchre, and contained a divine ointment which distilled daily and
stupendous miracles, (Ducange, Hist de C P ii 4).
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the most important offices of the state and army; and this liberality of sentiment and practice was the more seasonable,
as the princes of Nice and Epirus had already learned to seduce and employ the mercenary valor of the Latins. It was
the aim of Henry to unite and reward his deserving subjects,
of every nation and language; but he appeared less solicitous
to accomplish the impracticable union of the two churches.
Pelagius, the pope’s legate, who acted as the sovereign of
Constantinople, had interdicted the worship of the Greeks,
and sternly imposed the payment of tithes, the double procession of the Holy Ghost, and a blind obedience to the Roman pontiff. As the weaker party, they pleaded the duties of
conscience, and implored the rights of toleration: “Our bodies,” they said, “are Cæsar’s, but our souls belong only to
God.” The persecution was checked by the firmness of the
emperor:266 and if we can believe that the same prince was
poisoned by the Greeks themselves, we must entertain a contemptible idea of the sense and gratitude of mankind. His
valor was a vulgar attribute, which he shared with ten thousand knights; but Henry possessed the superior courage to
oppose, in a superstitious age, the pride and avarice of the
clergy. In the cathedral of St. Sophia he presumed to place
his throne on the right hand of the patriarch; and this presumption excited the sharpest censure of Pope Innocent the
Third. By a salutary edict, one of the first examples of the
laws of mortmain, he prohibited the alienation of fiefs: many
of the Latins, desirous of returning to Europe, resigned their
estates to the church for a spiritual or temporal reward; these
holy lands were immediately discharged from military service, and a colony of soldiers would have been gradually
transformed into a college of priests.267
266 Acropolita (c 17) observes the persecution of the legate, and the toleration
of Henry, (‘Erh, * as he calls him) kludwna katestorese Note: Or rather ‘ErrhV–
M.
267 See the reign of Henry, in Ducange, (Hist de C P l i c 35–41, l ii c 1–22,) who
is much indebted to the Epistles of the Popes Le Beau (Hist du Bas Empire, tom
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The virtuous Henry died at Thessalonica, in the defence of
that kingdom, and of an infant, the son of his friend Boniface. In the two first emperors of Constantinople the male
line of the counts of Flanders was extinct. But their sister
Yolande was the wife of a French prince, the mother of a numerous progeny; and one of her daughters had married Andrew king of Hungary, a brave and pious champion of the
cross. By seating him on the Byzantine throne, the barons
of Romania would have acquired the forces of a neighboring
and warlike kingdom; but the prudent Andrew revered the
laws of succession; and the princess Yolande, with her husband Peter of Courtenay, count of Auxerre, was invited by
the Latins to assume the empire of the East. The royal birth
of his father, the noble origin of his mother, recommended to
the barons of France the first cousin of their king. His reputation was fair, his possessions were ample, and in the bloody
crusade against the Albigeois, the soldiers and the priests had
been abundantly satisfied of his zeal and valor. Vanity might
applaud the elevation of a French emperor of Constantinople; but prudence must pity, rather than envy, his treacherous and imaginary greatness. To assert and adorn his title,
he was reduced to sell or mortgage the best of his patrimony.
By these expedients, the liberality of his royal kinsman Philip
Augustus, and the national spirit of chivalry, he was enabled
to pass the Alps at the head of one hundred and forty knights,
and five thousand five hundred sergeants and archers. After
some hesitation, Pope Honorius the Third was persuaded to
crown the successor of Constantine: but he performed the
ceremony in a church without the walls, lest he should seem
to imply or to bestow any right of sovereignty over the ancient capital of the empire. The Venetians had engaged to
transport Peter and his forces beyond the Adriatic, and the
empress, with her four children, to the Byzantine palace; but
they required, as the price of their service, that he should rexxi p 120–122) has found, perhaps in Doutreman, some laws of Henry, which
determined the service of fiefs, and the prerogatives of the emperor.
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cover Durazzo from the despot of Epirus. Michael Angelus,
or Comnenus, the first of his dynasty, had bequeathed the
succession of his power and ambition to Theodore, his legitimate brother, who already threatened and invaded the establishments of the Latins. After discharging his debt by a
fruitless assault, the emperor raised the siege to prosecute a
long and perilous journey over land from Durazzo to Thessalonica. He was soon lost in the mountains of Epirus: the
passes were fortified; his provisions exhausted; he was delayed and deceived by a treacherous negotiation; and, after
Peter of Courtenay and the Roman legate had been arrested
in a banquet, the French troops, without leaders or hopes,
were eager to exchange their arms for the delusive promise
of mercy and bread. The Vatican thundered; and the impious Theodore was threatened with the vengeance of earth
and heaven; but the captive emperor and his soldiers were
forgotten, and the reproaches of the pope are confined to the
imprisonment of his legate. No sooner was he satisfied by
the deliverance of the priests and a promise of spiritual obedience, than he pardoned and protected the despot of Epirus.
His peremptory commands suspended the ardor of the Venetians and the king of Hungary; and it was only by a natural or
untimely death268 that Peter of Courtenay was released from
his hopeless captivity.269
The long ignorance of his fate, and the presence of the
lawful sovereign, of Yolande, his wife or widow, delayed
the proclamation of a new emperor. Before her death, and
in the midst of her grief, she was delivered of a son, who
268 Acropolita (c 14) affirms, that Peter of Courtenay died by the sword, (ergon macairaV genesqai;) but from his dark expressions, I should conclude a
previous captivity, wV pantaV ardhn desmwtaV poihsai sun pasi skeuesi * The
Chronicle of Auxerre delays the emperor’s death till the year 1219; and Auxerre
is in the neighborhood of Courtenay Note: Whatever may have been the fact,
this can hardly be made out from the expressions of Acropolita–M.
269 See the reign and death of Peter of Courtenay, in Ducange, (Hist de C P l
ii c 22–28,) who feebly strives to excuse the neglect of the emperor by Honorius
III.
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was named Baldwin, the last and most unfortunate of the
Latin princes of Constantinople. His birth endeared him to
the barons of Romania; but his childhood would have prolonged the troubles of a minority, and his claims were superseded by the elder claims of his brethren. The first of these,
Philip of Courtenay, who derived from his mother the inheritance of Namur, had the wisdom to prefer the substance of a
marquisate to the shadow of an empire; and on his refusal,
Robert, the second of the sons of Peter and Yolande, was
called to the throne of Constantinople. Warned by his father’s
mischance, he pursued his slow and secure journey through
Germany and along the Danube: a passage was opened by
his sister’s marriage with the king of Hungary; and the emperor Robert was crowned by the patriarch in the cathedral of
St. Sophia. But his reign was an æra of calamity and disgrace;
and the colony, as it was styled, of New France yielded on all
sides to the Greeks of Nice and Epirus. After a victory, which
he owed to his perfidy rather than his courage, Theodore Angelus entered the kingdom of Thessalonica, expelled the feeble Demetrius, the son of the marquis Boniface, erected his
standard on the walls of Adrianople; and added, by his vanity, a third or a fourth name to the list of rival emperors. The
relics of the Asiatic province were swept away by John Vataces, the son-in-law and successor of Theodore Lascaris, and
who, in a triumphant reign of thirty-three years, displayed
the virtues both of peace and war. Under his discipline, the
swords of the French mercenaries were the most effectual instruments of his conquests, and their desertion from the service of their country was at once a symptom and a cause of
the rising ascendant of the Greeks. By the construction of a
fleet, he obtained the command of the Hellespont, reduced
the islands of Lesbos and Rhodes, attacked the Venetians of
Candia, and intercepted the rare and parsimonious succors
of the West. Once, and once only, the Latin emperor sent an
army against Vataces; and in the defeat of that army, the veteran knights, the last of the original conquerors, were left on
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the field of battle. But the success of a foreign enemy was
less painful to the pusillanimous Robert than the insolence of
his Latin subjects, who confounded the weakness of the emperor and of the empire. His personal misfortunes will prove
the anarchy of the government and the ferociousness of the
times. The amorous youth had neglected his Greek bride, the
daughter of Vataces, to introduce into the palace a beautiful
maid, of a private, though noble family of Artois; and her
mother had been tempted by the lustre of the purple to forfeit her engagements with a gentleman of Burgundy. His love
was converted into rage; he assembled his friends, forced the
palace gates, threw the mother into the sea, and inhumanly
cut off the nose and lips of the wife or concubine of the emperor. Instead of punishing the offender, the barons avowed
and applauded the savage deed,270 which, as a prince and
as a man, it was impossible that Robert should forgive. He
escaped from the guilty city to implore the justice or compassion of the pope: the emperor was coolly exhorted to return
to his station; before he could obey, he sunk under the weight
of grief, shame, and impotent resentment.271
It was only in the age of chivalry, that valor could ascend
from a private station to the thrones of Jerusalem and Constantinople. The titular kingdom of Jerusalem had devolved
to Mary, the daughter of Isabella and Conrad of Montferrat, and the granddaughter of Almeric or Amaury. She was
given to John of Brienne, of a noble family in Champagne,
by the public voice, and the judgment of Philip Augustus,
who named him as the most worthy champion of the Holy
Land.272 In the fifth crusade, he led a hundred thousand
270 Marinus Sanutus (Secreta Fidelium Crucis, l ii p 4, c 18, p 73) is so much
delighted with this bloody deed, that he has transcribed it in his margin as
a bonum exemplum Yet he acknowledges the damsel for the lawful wife of
Robert.
271 See the reign of Robert, in Ducange, (Hist de C P l ii c–12).
272 Rex igitur Franciæ, deliberatione habitâ, respondit nuntiis, se daturum
hominem Syriæ partibus aptum; in armis probum (preux) in bellis securum,
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Latins to the conquest of Egypt: by him the siege of Damietta
was achieved; and the subsequent failure was justly ascribed
to the pride and avarice of the legate. After the marriage of
his daughter with Frederic the Second,273 he was provoked
by the emperor’s ingratitude to accept the command of the
army of the church; and though advanced in life, and despoiled of royalty, the sword and spirit of John of Brienne
were still ready for the service of Christendom. In the seven
years of his brother’s reign, Baldwin of Courtenay had not
emerged from a state of childhood, and the barons of Romania felt the strong necessity of placing the sceptre in the hands
of a man and a hero. The veteran king of Jerusalem might
have disdained the name and office of regent; they agreed to
invest him for his life with the title and prerogatives of emperor, on the sole condition that Baldwin should marry his
second daughter, and succeed at a mature age to the throne
of Constantinople. The expectation, both of the Greeks and
Latins, was kindled by the renown, the choice, and the presence of John of Brienne; and they admired his martial aspect,
his green and vigorous age of more than fourscore years, and
his size and stature, which surpassed the common measure
of mankind.274 But avarice, and the love of ease, appear to
have chilled the ardor of enterprise:275 his troops were disbanded, and two years rolled away without action or honor,
till he was awakened by the dangerous alliance of Vataces
in agendis providum, Johannem comitem Brennensem Sanut Secret Fidelium, l
iii p xi c 4, p 205 Matthew Paris, p 159.
273 Giannone (Istoria Civile, tom ii l xvi p 380–385) discusses the marriage of
Frederic II with the daughter of John of Brienne, and the double union of the
crowns of Naples and Jerusalem.
274 Acropolita, c 27 The historian was at that time a boy, and educated at Constantinople In 1233, when he was eleven years old, his father broke the Latin
chain, left a splendid fortune, and escaped to the Greek court of Nice, where
his son was raised to the highest honors.
275 John de Brienne, elected emperor 1229, wasted two years in preparations,
and did not arrive at Constantinople till 1231 Two years more glided away in
inglorious inaction; he then made some ineffective warlike expeditions Constantinople was not besieged till 1234–M.
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emperor of Nice, and of Azan king of Bulgaria. They besieged Constantinople by sea and land, with an army of one
hundred thousand men, and a fleet of three hundred ships of
war; while the entire force of the Latin emperor was reduced
to one hundred and sixty knights, and a small addition of
sergeants and archers. I tremble to relate, that instead of defending the city, the hero made a sally at the head of his cavalry; and that of forty-eight squadrons of the enemy, no more
than three escaped from the edge of his invincible sword.
Fired by his example, the infantry and the citizens boarded
the vessels that anchored close to the walls; and twenty-five
were dragged in triumph into the harbor of Constantinople.
At the summons of the emperor, the vassals and allies armed
in her defence; broke through every obstacle that opposed
their passage; and, in the succeeding year, obtained a second
victory over the same enemies. By the rude poets of the age,
John of Brienne is compared to Hector, Roland, and Judas
Machabæus:276 but their credit, and his glory, receive some
abatement from the silence of the Greeks. The empire was
soon deprived of the last of her champions; and the dying
monarch was ambitious to enter paradise in the habit of a
Franciscan friar.277
In the double victory of John of Brienne, I cannot discover
the name or exploits of his pupil Baldwin, who had attained
the age of military service, and who succeeded to the imperial dignity on the decease of his adoptive father.278 The
royal youth was employed on a commission more suitable to
276 Philip Mouskes, bishop of Tournay, (AD 1274–1282,) has composed a
poem, or rather string of verses, in bad old Flemish French, on the Latin emperors of Constantinople, which Ducange has published at the end of Villehardouin; see p 38, for the prowess of John of Brienne N’Aie, Ector, Roll’ ne
Ogiers Ne Judas Machabeus li fiers Tant ne fit d’armes en estors Com fist li
Rois Jehans cel jors Et il defors et il dedans La paru sa force et ses sens Et li
hardiment qu’il avoit.
277 See the reign of John de Brienne, in Ducange, Hist de C P l ii c 13–26.
278 See the reign of Baldwin II till his expulsion from Constantinople, in
Ducange, Hist de C P l iv c 1–34, the end l v c 1–33.
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his temper; he was sent to visit the Western courts, of the
pope more especially, and of the king of France; to excite
their pity by the view of his innocence and distress; and to
obtain some supplies of men or money for the relief of the
sinking empire. He thrice repeated these mendicant visits,
in which he seemed to prolong his stay and postpone his return; of the five-and-twenty years of his reign, a greater number were spent abroad than at home; and in no place did the
emperor deem himself less free and secure than in his native
country and his capital. On some public occasions, his vanity
might be soothed by the title of Augustus, and by the honors of the purple; and at the general council of Lyons, when
Frederic the Second was excommunicated and deposed, his
Oriental colleague was enthroned on the right hand of the
pope. But how often was the exile, the vagrant, the Imperial beggar, humbled with scorn, insulted with pity, and degraded in his own eyes and those of the nations! In his first
visit to England, he was stopped at Dover by a severe reprimand, that he should presume, without leave, to enter an
independent kingdom. After some delay, Baldwin, however,
was permitted to pursue his journey, was entertained with
cold civility, and thankfully departed with a present of seven
hundred marks.279 From the avarice of Rome he could only
obtain the proclamation of a crusade, and a treasure of indulgences; a coin whose currency was depreciated by too frequent and indiscriminate abuse. His birth and misfortunes
recommended him to the generosity of his cousin Louis the
Ninth; but the martial zeal of the saint was diverted from
Constantinople to Egypt and Palestine; and the public and
private poverty of Baldwin was alleviated, for a moment, by
the alienation of the marquisate of Namur and the lordship
279 Matthew Paris relates the two visits of Baldwin II to the English court,
p 396, 637; his return to Greece armatâ manû, p 407 his letters of his nomen
formidabile, &c, p 481, (a passage which has escaped Ducange;) his expulsion,
p 850.
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of Courtenay, the last remains of his inheritance.280 By such
shameful or ruinous expedients, he once more returned to
Romania, with an army of thirty thousand soldiers, whose
numbers were doubled in the apprehension of the Greeks.
His first despatches to France and England announced his
victories and his hopes: he had reduced the country round
the capital to the distance of three days’ journey; and if he
succeeded against an important, though nameless, city, (most
probably Chiorli,) the frontier would be safe and the passage
accessible. But these expectations (if Baldwin was sincere)
quickly vanished like a dream: the troops and treasures of
France melted away in his unskilful hands; and the throne of
the Latin emperor was protected by a dishonorable alliance
with the Turks and Comans. To secure the former, he consented to bestow his niece on the unbelieving sultan of Cogni;
to please the latter, he complied with their Pagan rites; a
dog was sacrificed between the two armies; and the contracting parties tasted each other’s blood, as a pledge of their fidelity.281 In the palace, or prison, of Constantinople, the successor of Augustus demolished the vacant houses for winter
fuel, and stripped the lead from the churches for the daily
expense of his family. Some usurious loans were dealt with
a scanty hand by the merchants of Italy; and Philip, his son
and heir, was pawned at Venice as the security for a debt.282
Thirst, hunger, and nakedness, are positive evils: but wealth
is relative; and a prince who would be rich in a private station, may be exposed by the increase of his wants to all the
anxiety and bitterness of poverty.
280 Louis IX disapproved and stopped the alienation of Courtenay (Ducange,
l iv c 23) It is now annexed to the royal demesne but granted for a term (engagé)
to the family of Boulainvilliers Courtenay, in the election of Nemours in the Isle
de France, is a town of 900 inhabitants, with the remains of a castle, (Mélanges
tirés d’une Grande Bibliothèque, tom xlv p 74–77).
281 Joinville, p 104, edit du Louvre A Coman prince, who died without baptism, was buried at the gates of Constantinople with a live retinue of slaves and
horses.
282 Sanut Secret Fidel Crucis, l ii p iv c 18, p 73.
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Part III
in this abject distress, the emperor and empire were
B
still possessed of an ideal treasure, which drew its fantastic value from the superstition of the Christian world. The
UT
merit of the true cross was somewhat impaired by its frequent division; and a long captivity among the infidels might
shed some suspicion on the fragments that were produced
in the East and West. But another relic of the Passion was
preserved in the Imperial chapel of Constantinople; and the
crown of thorns which had been placed on the head of Christ
was equally precious and authentic. It had formerly been the
practice of the Egyptian debtors to deposit, as a security, the
mummies of their parents; and both their honor and religion
were bound for the redemption of the pledge. In the same
manner, and in the absence of the emperor, the barons of
Romania borrowed the sum of thirteen thousand one hundred and thirty-four pieces of gold283 on the credit of the
holy crown: they failed in the performance of their contract;
and a rich Venetian, Nicholas Querini, undertook to satisfy
their impatient creditors, on condition that the relic should be
lodged at Venice, to become his absolute property, if it were
not redeemed within a short and definite term. The barons
apprised their sovereign of the hard treaty and impending
loss and as the empire could not afford a ransom of seven
thousand pounds sterling, Baldwin was anxious to snatch
the prize from the Venetians, and to vest it with more honor
and emolument in the hands of the most Christian king.284
Yet the negotiation was attended with some delicacy. In the
283 Under the words Perparus, Perpera, Hyperperum, Ducange is short and
vague: Monetæ genus From a corrupt passage of Guntherus, (Hist C P c 8,
p 10,) I guess that the Perpera was the nummus aureus, the fourth part of a
mark of silver, or about ten shillings sterling in value In lead it would be too
contemptible.
284 For the translation of the holy crown, &c, from Constantinople to Paris,
see Ducange (Hist de C P l iv c 11–14, 24, 35) and Fleury, (Hist Ecclés tom xvii
p 201–204).
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purchase of relics, the saint would have started at the guilt
of simony; but if the mode of expression were changed, he
might lawfully repay the debt, accept the gift, and acknowledge the obligation. His ambassadors, two Dominicans, were
despatched to Venice to redeem and receive the holy crown
which had escaped the dangers of the sea and the galleys of
Vataces. On opening a wooden box, they recognized the seals
of the doge and barons, which were applied on a shrine of silver; and within this shrine the monument of the Passion was
enclosed in a golden vase. The reluctant Venetians yielded to
justice and power: the emperor Frederic granted a free and
honorable passage; the court of France advanced as far as
Troyes in Champagne, to meet with devotion this inestimable
relic: it was borne in triumph through Paris by the king himself, barefoot, and in his shirt; and a free gift of ten thousand
marks of silver reconciled Baldwin to his loss. The success of
this transaction tempted the Latin emperor to offer with the
same generosity the remaining furniture of his chapel;285 a
large and authentic portion of the true cross; the baby-linen
of the Son of God, the lance, the sponge, and the chain, of his
Passion; the rod of Moses, and part of the skull of St. John the
Baptist. For the reception of these spiritual treasures, twenty
thousand marks were expended by St. Louis on a stately
foundation, the holy chapel of Paris, on which the muse of
Boileau has bestowed a comic immortality. The truth of such
remote and ancient relics, which cannot be proved by any
human testimony, must be admitted by those who believe in
the miracles which they have performed. About the middle
of the last age, an inveterate ulcer was touched and cured by
a holy prickle of the holy crown:286 the prodigy is attested by
285 Mélanges tirés d’une Grande Bibliothèque, tom xliii p 201–205 The Lutrin
of Boileau exhibits the inside, the soul and manners of the Sainte Chapelle; and
many facts relative to the institution are collected and explained by his commentators, Brosset and De St Marc.
286 It was performed AD 1656, March 24, on the niece of Pascal; and that superior genius, with Arnauld, Nicole, &c, were on the spot, to believe and attest a
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the most pious and enlightened Christians of France; nor will
the fact be easily disproved, except by those who are armed
with a general antidote against religious credulity.287
The Latins of Constantinople288 were on all sides encompassed and pressed; their sole hope, the last delay of their
ruin, was in the division of their Greek and Bulgarian enemies; and of this hope they were deprived by the superior arms and policy of Vataces, emperor of Nice. From the
Propontis to the rocky coast of Pamphylia, Asia was peaceful and prosperous under his reign; and the events of every campaign extended his influence in Europe. The strong
cities of the hills of Macedonia and Thrace were rescued from
the Bulgarians; and their kingdom was circumscribed by its
present and proper limits, along the southern banks of the
Danube. The sole emperor of the Romans could no longer
brook that a lord of Epirus, a Comnenian prince of the West,
should presume to dispute or share the honors of the purple;
and the humble Demetrius changed the color of his buskins,
and accepted with gratitude the appellation of despot. His
own subjects were exasperated by his baseness and incapacity; they implored the protection of their supreme lord. After some resistance, the kingdom of Thessalonica was united
to the empire of Nice; and Vataces reigned without a competitor from the Turkish borders to the Adriatic Gulf. The
princes of Europe revered his merit and power; and had he
miracle which confounded the Jesuits, and saved Port Royal, (uvres de Racine,
tom vi p 176–187, in his eloquent History of Port Royal).
287 Voltaire (Siécle de Louis XIV c 37, uvres, tom ix p 178, 179) strives to invalidate the fact: but Hume, (Essays, vol ii p 483, 484,) with more skill and success,
seizes the battery, and turns the cannon against his enemies.
288 The gradual losses of the Latins may be traced in the third fourth, and
fifth books of the compilation of Ducange: but of the Greek conquests he has
dropped many circumstances, which may be recovered from the larger history
of George Acropolita, and the three first books of Nicephorus, Gregoras, two
writers of the Byzantine series, who have had the good fortune to meet with
learned editors Leo Allatius at Rome, and John Boivin in the Academy of Inscriptions of Paris.
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subscribed an orthodox creed, it should seem that the pope
would have abandoned without reluctance the Latin throne
of Constantinople. But the death of Vataces, the short and
busy reign of Theodore his son, and the helpless infancy of
his grandson John, suspended the restoration of the Greeks.
In the next chapter, I shall explain their domestic revolutions;
in this place, it will be sufficient to observe, that the young
prince was oppressed by the ambition of his guardian and
colleague, Michael Palæologus, who displayed the virtues
and vices that belong to the founder of a new dynasty. The
emperor Baldwin had flattered himself, that he might recover
some provinces or cities by an impotent negotiation. His ambassadors were dismissed from Nice with mockery and contempt. At every place which they named, Palæologus alleged
some special reason, which rendered it dear and valuable in
his eyes: in the one he was born; in another he had been first
promoted to military command; and in a third he had enjoyed, and hoped long to enjoy, the pleasures of the chase.
“And what then do you propose to give us?” said the astonished deputies. “Nothing,” replied the Greek, “not a foot of
land. If your master be desirous of peace, let him pay me, as
an annual tribute, the sum which he receives from the trade
and customs of Constantinople. On these terms, I may allow
him to reign. If he refuses, it is war. I am not ignorant of the
art of war, and I trust the event to God and my sword.”289 An
expedition against the despot of Epirus was the first prelude
of his arms. If a victory was followed by a defeat; if the race
of the Comneni or Angeli survived in those mountains his efforts and his reign; the captivity of Villehardouin, prince of
Achaia, deprived the Latins of the most active and powerful
vassal of their expiring monarchy. The republics of Venice
and Genoa disputed, in the first of their naval wars, the command of the sea and the commerce of the East. Pride and
interest attached the Venetians to the defence of Constantino289 George
Acropolita, c 78, p 89, 90 edit Paris.
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ple; their rivals were tempted to promote the designs of her
enemies, and the alliance of the Genoese with the schismatic
conqueror provoked the indignation of the Latin church.290
Intent on his great object, the emperor Michael visited
in person and strengthened the troops and fortifications
of Thrace. The remains of the Latins were driven from
their last possessions: he assaulted without success the suburb of Galata; and corresponded with a perfidious baron,
who proved unwilling, or unable, to open the gates of the
metropolis. The next spring, his favorite general, Alexius Strategopulus, whom he had decorated with the title of
Cæsar, passed the Hellespont with eight hundred horse and
some infantry,291 on a secret expedition. His instructions enjoined him to approach, to listen, to watch, but not to risk
any doubtful or dangerous enterprise against the city. The
adjacent territory between the Propontis and the Black Sea
was cultivated by a hardy race of peasants and outlaws, exercised in arms, uncertain in their allegiance, but inclined by
language, religion, and present advantage, to the party of the
Greeks. They were styled the volunteers;292 and by their free
service the army of Alexius, with the regulars of Thrace and
the Coman auxiliaries,293 was augmented to the number of
five-and-twenty thousand men. By the ardor of the volunteers, and by his own ambition, the Cæsar was stimulated
290 The Greeks, ashamed of any foreign aid, disguise the alliance and succor
of the Genoese: but the fact is proved by the testimony of J Villani (Chron l
vi c 71, in Muratori, Script Rerum Italicarum, tom xiii p 202, 203) and William
de Nangis, (Annales de St Louis, p 248 in the Louvre Joinville,) two impartial
foreigners; and Urban IV threatened to deprive Genoa of her archbishop.
291 Some precautions must be used in reconciling the discordant numbers; the
800 soldiers of Nicetas, the 25,000 of Spandugino, (apud Ducange, l v c 24;) the
Greeks and Scythians of Acropolita; and the numerous army of Michael, in the
Epistles of Pope Urban IV (i 129).
292 Qelhmatarioi They are described and named by Pachymer, (l ii c 14).
293 It is needless to seek these Comans in the deserts of Tartary, or even of
Moldavia A part of the horde had submitted to John Vataces, and was probably
settled as a nursery of soldiers on some waste lands of Thrace, (Cantacuzen l i
c 2).
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to disobey the precise orders of his master, in the just confidence that success would plead his pardon and reward. The
weakness of Constantinople, and the distress and terror of
the Latins, were familiar to the observation of the volunteers;
and they represented the present moment as the most propitious to surprise and conquest. A rash youth, the new governor of the Venetian colony, had sailed away with thirty galleys, and the best of the French knights, on a wild expedition
to Daphnusia, a town on the Black Sea, at the distance of forty
leagues;294 and the remaining Latins were without strength
or suspicion. They were informed that Alexius had passed
the Hellespont; but their apprehensions were lulled by the
smallness of his original numbers; and their imprudence had
not watched the subsequent increase of his army. If he left his
main body to second and support his operations, he might
advance unperceived in the night with a chosen detachment.
While some applied scaling-ladders to the lowest part of the
walls, they were secure of an old Greek, who would introduce their companions through a subterraneous passage into
his house; they could soon on the inside break an entrance
through the golden gate, which had been long obstructed;
and the conqueror would be in the heart of the city before
the Latins were conscious of their danger. After some debate,
the Cæsar resigned himself to the faith of the volunteers; they
were trusty, bold, and successful; and in describing the plan,
I have already related the execution and success.295 But no
sooner had Alexius passed the threshold of the golden gate,
than he trembled at his own rashness; he paused, he deliberated; till the desperate volunteers urged him forwards, by the
294 According to several authorities, particularly Abulfaradj Chron Arab p
336, this was a stratagem on the part of the Greeks to weaken the garrison
of Constantinople The Greek commander offered to surrender the town on the
appearance of the Venetians–M.
295 The loss of Constantinople is briefly told by the Latins: the conquest is
described with more satisfaction by the Greeks; by Acropolita, (c 85,) Pachymer,
(l ii c 26, 27,) Nicephorus Gregoras, (l iv c 1, 2) See Ducange, Hist de C P l v c
19–27.
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assurance that in retreat lay the greatest and most inevitable
danger. Whilst the Cæsar kept his regulars in firm array,
the Comans dispersed themselves on all sides; an alarm was
sounded, and the threats of fire and pillage compelled the citizens to a decisive resolution. The Greeks of Constantinople
remembered their native sovereigns; the Genoese merchants
their recent alliance and Venetian foes; every quarter was in
arms; and the air resounded with a general acclamation of
“Long life and victory to Michael and John, the august emperors of the Romans!” Their rival, Baldwin, was awakened
by the sound; but the most pressing danger could not prompt
him to draw his sword in the defence of a city which he deserted, perhaps, with more pleasure than regret: he fled from
the palace to the seashore, where he descried the welcome
sails of the fleet returning from the vain and fruitless attempt
on Daphnusia. Constantinople was irrecoverably lost; but
the Latin emperor and the principal families embarked on
board the Venetian galleys, and steered for the Isle of Euba,
and afterwards for Italy, where the royal fugitive was entertained by the pope and Sicilian king with a mixture of contempt and pity. From the loss of Constantinople to his death,
he consumed thirteen years, soliciting the Catholic powers
to join in his restoration: the lesson had been familiar to his
youth; nor was his last exile more indigent or shameful than
his three former pilgrimages to the courts of Europe. His son
Philip was the heir of an ideal empire; and the pretensions
of his daughter Catherine were transported by her marriage
to Charles of Valois, the brother of Philip the Fair, king of
France. The house of Courtenay was represented in the female line by successive alliances, till the title of emperor of
Constantinople, too bulky and sonorous for a private name,
modestly expired in silence and oblivion.296
296 See the three last books (l v–viii) and the genealogical tables of Ducange
In the year 1382, the titular emperor of Constantinople was James de Baux,
duke of Andria in the kingdom of Naples, the son of Margaret, daughter of
Catherine de Valois, daughter of Catharine, daughter of Philip, son of Baldwin
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After this narrative of the expeditions of the Latins to
Palestine and Constantinople, I cannot dismiss the subject
without resolving the general consequences on the countries
that were the scene, and on the nations that were the actors, of these memorable crusades.297 As soon as the arms
of the Franks were withdrawn, the impression, though not
the memory, was erased in the Mahometan realms of Egypt
and Syria. The faithful disciples of the prophet were never
tempted by a profane desire to study the laws or language of
the idolaters; nor did the simplicity of their primitive manners receive the slightest alteration from their intercourse in
peace and war with the unknown strangers of the West. The
Greeks, who thought themselves proud, but who were only
vain, showed a disposition somewhat less inflexible. In the
efforts for the recovery of their empire, they emulated the
valor, discipline, and tactics of their antagonists. The modern
literature of the West they might justly despise; but its free
spirit would instruct them in the rights of man; and some institutions of public and private life were adopted from the
French. The correspondence of Constantinople and Italy diffused the knowledge of the Latin tongue; and several of the
fathers and classics were at length honored with a Greek version.298 But the national and religious prejudices of the Orientals were inflamed by persecution, and the reign of the
Latins confirmed the separation of the two churches.
If we compare the æra of the crusades, the Latins of Europe with the Greeks and Arabians, their respective degrees
II, (Ducange, l viii c 37, 38) It is uncertain whether he left any posterity.
297 Abulfeda, who saw the conclusion of the crusades, speaks of the kingdoms
of the Franks, and those of the Negroes, as equally unknown, (Prolegom ad Geograph) Had he not disdained the Latin language, how easily might the Syrian
prince have found books and interpreters!.
298 A short and superficial account of these versions from Latin into Greek
is given by Huet, (de Interpretatione et de claris Interpretibus p 131–135)
Maximus Planudes, a monk of Constantinople, (AD 1327–1353) has translated
Cæsar’s Commentaries, the Somnium Scipionis, the Metamorphoses and Heroides of Ovid, &c, (Fabric Bib Græc tom x p 533).
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of knowledge, industry, and art, our rude ancestors must be
content with the third rank in the scale of nations. Their
successive improvement and present superiority may be ascribed to a peculiar energy of character, to an active and imitative spirit, unknown to their more polished rivals, who at
that time were in a stationary or retrograde state. With such
a disposition, the Latins should have derived the most early
and essential benefits from a series of events which opened to
their eyes the prospect of the world, and introduced them to
a long and frequent intercourse with the more cultivated regions of the East. The first and most obvious progress was
in trade and manufactures, in the arts which are strongly
prompted by the thirst of wealth, the calls of necessity, and
the gratification of the sense or vanity. Among the crowd
of unthinking fanatics, a captive or a pilgrim might sometimes observe the superior refinements of Cairo and Constantinople: the first importer of windmills299 was the benefactor of nations; and if such blessings are enjoyed without
any grateful remembrance, history has condescended to notice the more apparent luxuries of silk and sugar, which were
transported into Italy from Greece and Egypt. But the intellectual wants of the Latins were more slowly felt and supplied; the ardor of studious curiosity was awakened in Europe by different causes and more recent events; and, in
the age of the crusades, they viewed with careless indifference the literature of the Greeks and Arabians. Some rudiments of mathematical and medicinal knowledge might be
imparted in practice and in figures; necessity might produce
some interpreters for the grosser business of merchants and
soldiers; but the commerce of the Orientals had not diffused
the study and knowledge of their languages in the schools of
Europe.300 If a similar principle of religion repulsed the id299 Windmills, first invented in the dry country of Asia Minor, were used in
Normandy as early as the year 1105, (Vie privée des François, tom i p 42, 43
Ducange, Gloss Latin tom iv p 474).
300 See the complaints of Roger Bacon, (Biographia Britannica, vol i p 418,
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iom of the Koran, it should have excited their patience and
curiosity to understand the original text of the gospel; and
the same grammar would have unfolded the sense of Plato
and the beauties of Homer. Yet in a reign of sixty years, the
Latins of Constantinople disdained the speech and learning
of their subjects; and the manuscripts were the only treasures
which the natives might enjoy without rapine or envy. Aristotle was indeed the oracle of the Western universities, but it
was a barbarous Aristotle; and, instead of ascending to the
fountain head, his Latin votaries humbly accepted a corrupt
and remote version, from the Jews and Moors of Andalusia.
The principle of the crusades was a savage fanaticism; and
the most important effects were analogous to the cause. Each
pilgrim was ambitious to return with his sacred spoils, the
relics of Greece and Palestine;301 and each relic was preceded
and followed by a train of miracles and visions. The belief of
the Catholics was corrupted by new legends, their practice by
new superstitions; and the establishment of the inquisition,
the mendicant orders of monks and friars, the last abuse of
indulgences, and the final progress of idolatry, flowed from
the baleful fountain of the holy war. The active spirit of the
Latins preyed on the vitals of their reason and religion; and
if the ninth and tenth centuries were the times of darkness,
the thirteenth and fourteenth were the age of absurdity and
fable.
Kippis’s edition) If Bacon himself, or Gerbert, understood someGreek, they were
prodigies, and owed nothing to the commerce of the East.
301 Such was the opinion of the great Leibnitz, (uvres de Fontenelle, tom v p
458,) a master of the history of the middle ages I shall only instance the pedigree of the Carmelites, and the flight of the house of Loretto, which were both
derived from Palestine.
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Part IV
the profession of Christianity, in the cultivation of a ferIinsensibly
tile land, the northern conquerors of the Roman empire
mingled with the provincials, and rekindled the
N
embers of the arts of antiquity. Their settlements about the
age of Charlemagne had acquired some degree of order and
stability, when they were overwhelmed by new swarms of
invaders, the Normans, Saracens,302 and Hungarians, who
replunged the western countries of Europe into their former
state of anarchy and barbarism. About the eleventh century,
the second tempest had subsided by the expulsion or conversion of the enemies of Christendom: the tide of civilization,
which had so long ebbed, began to flow with a steady and
accelerated course; and a fairer prospect was opened to the
hopes and efforts of the rising generations. Great was the increase, and rapid the progress, during the two hundred years
of the crusades; and some philosophers have applauded the
propitious influence of these holy wars, which appear to me
to have checked rather than forwarded the maturity of Europe.303 The lives and labors of millions, which were buried
in the East, would have been more profitably employed in
the improvement of their native country: the accumulated
stock of industry and wealth would have overflowed in navigation and trade; and the Latins would have been enriched
and enlightened by a pure and friendly correspondence with
the climates of the East. In one respect I can indeed perceive
the accidental operation of the crusades, not so much in producing a benefit as in removing an evil. The larger portion
302 If I rank the Saracens with the Barbarians, it is only relative to their wars,
or rather inroads, in Italy and France, where their sole purpose was to plunder
and destroy.
303 On this interesting subject, the progress of society in Europe, a strong ray
of philosophical light has broke from Scotland in our own times; and it is with
private, as well as public regard, that I repeat the names of Hume, Robertson,
and Adam Smith.
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of the inhabitants of Europe was chained to the soil, without
freedom, or property, or knowledge; and the two orders of
ecclesiastics and nobles, whose numbers were comparatively
small, alone deserved the name of citizens and men. This oppressive system was supported by the arts of the clergy and
the swords of the barons. The authority of the priests operated in the darker ages as a salutary antidote: they prevented
the total extinction of letters, mitigated the fierceness of the
times, sheltered the poor and defenceless, and preserved or
revived the peace and order of civil society. But the independence, rapine, and discord of the feudal lords were unmixed
with any semblance of good; and every hope of industry and
improvement was crushed by the iron weight of the martial
aristocracy. Among the causes that undermined that Gothic
edifice, a conspicuous place must be allowed to the crusades.
The estates of the barons were dissipated, and their race was
often extinguished, in these costly and perilous expeditions.
Their poverty extorted from their pride those charters of freedom which unlocked the fetters of the slave, secured the farm
of the peasant and the shop of the artificer, and gradually
restored a substance and a soul to the most numerous and
useful part of the community. The conflagration which destroyed the tall and barren trees of the forest gave air and
scope to the vegetation of the smaller and nutritive plants of
the soil.304
Digression On The Family Of Courtenay.
The purple of three emperors, who have reigned at Constantinople, will authorize or excuse a digression on the origin and singular fortunes of the house of Courtenay,305 in the
304 On the consequences of the crusades, compare the valuable Essay of
Heeren, that of M Choiseul d’Aillecourt, and a chapter of Mr Forster’s “Mahometanism Unveiled” I may admire this gentleman’s learning and industry,
without pledging myself to his wild theory of prophets interpretation–M.
305 I have applied, but not confined, myself to A genealogical History of the noble and illustrious Family of Courtenay, by Ezra Cleaveland, Tutor to Sir William
Courtenay, and Rector of Honiton; Exon 1735, in folio The first part is extracted
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three principal branches: I. Of Edessa; II. Of France; and III.
Of England; of which the last only has survived the revolutions of eight hundred years.
I. Before the introduction of trade, which scatters riches,
and of knowledge, which dispels prejudice, the prerogative
of birth is most strongly felt and most humbly acknowledged.
In every age, the laws and manners of the Germans have
discriminated the ranks of society; the dukes and counts,
who shared the empire of Charlemagne, converted their office to an inheritance; and to his children, each feudal lord
bequeathed his honor and his sword. The proudest families
are content to lose, in the darkness of the middle ages, the tree
of their pedigree, which, however deep and lofty, must ultimately rise from a plebeian root; and their historians must
descend ten centuries below the Christian æra, before they
can ascertain any lineal succession by the evidence of surnames, of arms, and of authentic records. With the first rays
of light,306 we discern the nobility and opulence of Atho, a
French knight; his nobility, in the rank and title of a nameless father; his opulence, in the foundation of the castle of
Courtenay in the district of Gatinois, about fifty-six miles to
the south of Paris. From the reign of Robert, the son of Hugh
Capet, the barons of Courtenay are conspicuous among the
immediate vassals of the crown; and Joscelin, the grandson
of Atho and a noble dame, is enrolled among the heroes of
the first crusade. A domestic alliance (their mothers were sisters) attached him to the standard of Baldwin of Bruges, the
second count of Edessa; a princely fief, which he was worthy to receive, and able to maintain, announces the number
of his martial followers; and after the departure of his cousin,
from William of Tyre; the second from Bouchet’s French history; and the third
from various memorials, public, provincial, and private, of the Courtenays of
Devonshire The rector of Honiton has more gratitude than industry, and more
industry than criticism.
306 The primitive record of the family is a passage of the continuator of
Aimoin, a monk of Fleury, who wrote in the xiith century See his Chronicle,
in the Historians of France, (tom xi p 276).
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Joscelin himself was invested with the county of Edessa on
both sides of the Euphrates. By economy in peace, his territories were replenished with Latin and Syrian subjects; his
magazines with corn, wine, and oil; his castles with gold and
silver, with arms and horses. In a holy warfare of thirty years,
he was alternately a conqueror and a captive: but he died
like a soldier, in a horse litter at the head of his troops; and
his last glance beheld the flight of the Turkish invaders who
had presumed on his age and infirmities. His son and successor, of the same name, was less deficient in valor than in
vigilance; but he sometimes forgot that dominion is acquired
and maintained by the same arms. He challenged the hostility of the Turks, without securing the friendship of the prince
of Antioch; and, amidst the peaceful luxury of Turbessel, in
Syria,307 Joscelin neglected the defence of the Christian frontier beyond the Euphrates. In his absence, Zenghi, the first of
the Atabeks, besieged and stormed his capital, Edessa, which
was feebly defended by a timorous and disloyal crowd of
Orientals: the Franks were oppressed in a bold attempt for
its recovery, and Courtenay ended his days in the prison of
Aleppo. He still left a fair and ample patrimony But the victorious Turks oppressed on all sides the weakness of a widow
and orphan; and, for the equivalent of an annual pension,
they resigned to the Greek emperor the charge of defending,
and the shame of losing, the last relics of the Latin conquest.
The countess-dowager of Edessa retired to Jerusalem with
her two children; the daughter, Agnes, became the wife and
mother of a king; the son, Joscelin the Third, accepted the office of seneschal, the first of the kingdom, and held his new
estates in Palestine by the service of fifty knights. His name
appears with honor in the transactions of peace and war; but
he finally vanishes in the fall of Jerusalem; and the name of
Courtenay, in this branch of Edessa, was lost by the marriage
307 Turbessel, or, as it is now styled, Telbesher, is fixed by D’Anville four-andtwenty miles from the great passage over the Euphrates at Zeugma.
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of his two daughters with a French and German baron.308
II. While Joscelin reigned beyond the Euphrates, his elder brother Milo, the son of Joscelin, the son of Atho, continued, near the Seine, to possess the castle of their fathers,
which was at length inherited by Rainaud, or Reginald, the
youngest of his three sons. Examples of genius or virtue must
be rare in the annals of the oldest families; and, in a remote
age their pride will embrace a deed of rapine and violence;
such, however, as could not be perpetrated without some superiority of courage, or, at least, of power. A descendant of
Reginald of Courtenay may blush for the public robber, who
stripped and imprisoned several merchants, after they had
satisfied the king’s duties at Sens and Orleans. He will glory
in the offence, since the bold offender could not be compelled
to obedience and restitution, till the regent and the count of
Champagne prepared to march against him at the head of an
army.309 Reginald bestowed his estates on his eldest daughter, and his daughter on the seventh son of King Louis the Fat;
and their marriage was crowned with a numerous offspring.
We might expect that a private should have merged in a royal
name; and that the descendants of Peter of France and Elizabeth of Courtenay would have enjoyed the titles and honors of princes of the blood. But this legitimate claim was
long neglected, and finally denied; and the causes of their
disgrace will represent the story of this second branch. 1.
Of all the families now extant, the most ancient, doubtless,
and the most illustrious, is the house of France, which has
occupied the same throne above eight hundred years, and
descends, in a clear and lineal series of males, from the mid308 His possessions are distinguished in the Assises of Jerusalem (c B26)
among the feudal tenures of the kingdom, which must therefore have been
collected between the years 1153 and 1187 His pedigree may be found in the
Lignages d’Outremer, c 16.
309 The rapine and satisfaction of Reginald de Courtenay, are preposterously
arranged in the Epistles of the abbot and regent Suger, (cxiv cxvi,) the best
memorials of the age, (Duchesne, Scriptores Hist Franc tom iv p 530).
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dle of the ninth century.310 In the age of the crusades, it was
already revered both in the East and West. But from Hugh
Capet to the marriage of Peter, no more than five reigns or
generations had elapsed; and so precarious was their title,
that the eldest sons, as a necessary precaution, were previously crowned during the lifetime of their fathers. The peers
of France have long maintained their precedency before the
younger branches of the royal line, nor had the princes of the
blood, in the twelfth century, acquired that hereditary lustre which is now diffused over the most remote candidates
for the succession. 2. The barons of Courtenay must have
stood high in their own estimation, and in that of the world,
since they could impose on the son of a king the obligation
of adopting for himself and all his descendants the name and
arms of their daughter and his wife. In the marriage of an
heiress with her inferior or her equal, such exchange often required and allowed: but as they continued to diverge from
the regal stem, the sons of Louis the Fat were insensibly confounded with their maternal ancestors; and the new Courtenays might deserve to forfeit the honors of their birth, which
a motive of interest had tempted them to renounce. 3. The
shame was far more permanent than the reward, and a momentary blaze was followed by a long darkness. The eldest
son of these nuptials, Peter of Courtenay, had married, as I
310 In the beginning of the xith century, after naming the father and grandfather of Hugh Capet, the monk Glaber is obliged to add, cujus genus valde
in-ante reperitur obscurum Yet we are assured that the great-grandfather of
Hugh Capet was Robert the Strong count of Anjou, (AD 863–873,) a noble Frank
of Neustria, Neustricus generosæ stirpis, who was slain in the defence of his
country against the Normans, dum patriæ fines tuebatur Beyond Robert, all
is conjecture or fable It is a probable conjecture, that the third race descended
from the second by Childebrand, the brother of Charles Martel It is an absurd
fable that the second was allied to the first by the marriage of Ansbert, a Roman senator and the ancestor of St Arnoul, with Blitilde, a daughter of Clotaire
I The Saxon origin of the house of France is an ancient but incredible opinion
See a judicious memoir of M de Foncemagne, (Mémoires de l’Académie des
Inscriptions, tom xx p 548–579) He had promised to declare his own opinion in
a second memoir, which has never appeared.
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have already mentioned, the sister of the counts of Flanders,
the two first emperors of Constantinople: he rashly accepted
the invitation of the barons of Romania; his two sons, Robert
and Baldwin, successively held and lost the remains of the
Latin empire in the East, and the granddaughter of Baldwin
the Second again mingled her blood with the blood of France
and of Valois. To support the expenses of a troubled and
transitory reign, their patrimonial estates were mortgaged or
sold: and the last emperors of Constantinople depended on
the annual charity of Rome and Naples.
While the elder brothers dissipated their wealth in romantic adventures, and the castle of Courtenay was profaned by a plebeian owner, the younger branches of that
adopted name were propagated and multiplied. But their
splendor was clouded by poverty and time: after the decease of Robert, great butler of France, they descended from
princes to barons; the next generations were confounded
with the simple gentry; the descendants of Hugh Capet
could no longer be visible in the rural lords of Tanlay and
of Champignelles. The more adventurous embraced without
dishonor the profession of a soldier: the least active and opulent might sink, like their cousins of the branch of Dreux, into
the condition of peasants. Their royal descent, in a dark period of four hundred years, became each day more obsolete
and ambiguous; and their pedigree, instead of being enrolled
in the annals of the kingdom, must be painfully searched by
the minute diligence of heralds and genealogists. It was not
till the end of the sixteenth century, on the accession of a family almost as remote as their own, that the princely spirit of
the Courtenays again revived; and the question of the nobility provoked them to ascertain the royalty of their blood.
They appealed to the justice and compassion of Henry the
Fourth; obtained a favorable opinion from twenty lawyers of
Italy and Germany, and modestly compared themselves to
the descendants of King David, whose prerogatives were not
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impaired by the lapse of ages or the trade of a carpenter.311
But every ear was deaf, and every circumstance was adverse,
to their lawful claims. The Bourbon kings were justified by
the neglect of the Valois; the princes of the blood, more recent and lofty, disdained the alliance of his humble kindred:
the parliament, without denying their proofs, eluded a dangerous precedent by an arbitrary distinction, and established
St. Louis as the first father of the royal line.312 A repetition of
complaints and protests was repeatedly disregarded; and the
hopeless pursuit was terminated in the present century by
the death of the last male of the family.313 Their painful and
anxious situation was alleviated by the pride of conscious
virtue: they sternly rejected the temptations of fortune and
favor; and a dying Courtenay would have sacrificed his son,
if the youth could have renounced, for any temporal interest, the right and title of a legitimate prince of the blood of
France.314
311 Of the various petitions, apologies, &c, published by the princes of Courtenay, I have seen the three following, all in octavo: 1 De Stirpe et Origine Domus
de Courtenay: addita sunt Responsa celeberrimorum Europæ Jurisconsultorum; Paris, 1607 2 Representation du Procedé tenû a l’instance faicte devant le
Roi, par Messieurs de Courtenay, pour la conservation de l’Honneur et Dignité
de leur Maison, branche de la royalle Maison de France; à Paris, 1613 3 Representation du subject qui a porté Messieurs de Salles et de Fraville, de la Maison
de Courtenay, à se retirer hors du Royaume, 1614 It was a homicide, for which
the Courtenays expected to be pardoned, or tried, as princes of the blood.
312 The sense of the parliaments is thus expressed by Thuanus Principis
nomen nusquam in Galliâ tributum, nisi iis qui per mares e regibus nostris
originem repetunt; qui nunc tantum a Ludovico none beatæ memoriæ numerantur; nam Cortini et Drocenses, a Ludovico crasso genus ducentes, hodie inter eos minime recensentur A distinction of expediency rather than justice The
sanctity of Louis IX could not invest him with any special prerogative, and all
the descendants of Hugh Capet must be included in his original compact with
the French nation.
313 The last male of the Courtenays was Charles Roger, who died in the year
1730, without leaving any sons The last female was Helene de Courtenay, who
married Louis de Beaufremont Her title of Princesse du Sang Royal de France
was suppressed (February 7th, 1737) by an arrêt of the parliament of Paris.
314 The singular anecdote to which I allude is related in the Recueil des Pieces
interessantes et peu connues, (Maestricht, 1786, in 4 vols 12mo;) and the un-
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PART IV
III. According to the old register of Ford Abbey, the Courtenays of Devonshire are descended from Prince Florus, the second son of Peter, and the grandson of Louis the Fat.315 This
fable of the grateful or venal monks was too respectfully entertained by our antiquaries, Cambden316 and Dugdale:317
but it is so clearly repugnant to truth and time, that the rational pride of the family now refuses to accept this imaginary founder. Their most faithful historians believe, that, after giving his daughter to the king’s son, Reginald of Courtenay abandoned his possessions in France, and obtained from
the English monarch a second wife and a new inheritance. It
is certain, at least, that Henry the Second distinguished in his
camps and councils a Reginald, of the name and arms, and, as
it may be fairly presumed, of the genuine race, of the Courtenays of France. The right of wardship enabled a feudal lord
to reward his vassal with the marriage and estate of a noble heiress; and Reginald of Courtenay acquired a fair establishment in Devonshire, where his posterity has been seated
above six hundred years.318 From a Norman baron, Baldwin
de Brioniis, who had been invested by the Conqueror, Hawise, the wife of Reginald, derived the honor of Okehampton, which was held by the service of ninety-three knights;
and a female might claim the manly offices of hereditary visknown editor quotes his author, who had received it from Helene de Courtenay,
marquise de Beaufremont.
315 Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, vol i p 786 Yet this fable must have
been invented before the reign of Edward III The profuse devotion of the three
first generations to Ford Abbey was followed by oppression on one side and ingratitude on the other; and in the sixth generation, the monks ceased to register
the births, actions, and deaths of their patrons.
316 In his Britannia, in the list of the earls of Devonshire His expression, e regio
sanguine ortos, credunt, betrays, however, some doubt or suspicion.
317 In his Baronage, P i p 634, he refers to his own Monasticon Should he not
have corrected the register of Ford Abbey, and annihilated the phantom Florus,
by the unquestionable evidence of the French historians?.
318 Besides the third and most valuable book of Cleaveland’s History, I have
consulted Dugdale, the father of our genealogical science, (Baronage, P i p 634–
643).
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PART IV
count or sheriff, and of captain of the royal castle of Exeter.
Their son Robert married the sister of the earl of Devon: at the
end of a century, on the failure of the family of Rivers,319 his
great-grandson, Hugh the Second, succeeded to a title which
was still considered as a territorial dignity; and twelve earls
of Devonshire, of the name of Courtenay, have flourished
in a period of two hundred and twenty years. They were
ranked among the chief of the barons of the realm; nor was
it till after a strenuous dispute, that they yielded to the fief
of Arundel the first place in the parliament of England: their
alliances were contracted with the noblest families, the Veres,
Despensers, St. Johns, Talbots, Bohuns, and even the Plantagenets themselves; and in a contest with John of Lancaster,
a Courtenay, bishop of London, and afterwards archbishop
of Canterbury, might be accused of profane confidence in
the strength and number of his kindred. In peace, the earls
of Devon resided in their numerous castles and manors of
the west; their ample revenue was appropriated to devotion
and hospitality; and the epitaph of Edward, surnamed from
his misfortune, the blind, from his virtues, the good, earl, inculcates with much ingenuity a moral sentence, which may,
however, be abused by thoughtless generosity. After a grateful commemoration of the fifty-five years of union and happiness which he enjoyed with Mabe his wife, the good earl
thus speaks from the tomb:–
“What we gave, we have;
What we spent, we had;
What we left, we lost.”320
But their losses, in this sense, were far superior to their gifts
and expenses; and their heirs, not less than the poor, were
319 This great family, de Ripuariis, de Redvers, de Rivers, ended, in Edward
the Fifth’s time, in Isabella de Fortibus, a famous and potent dowager, who
long survived her brother and husband, (Dugdale, Baronage, P i p 254–257).
320 Cleaveland p 142 By some it is assigned to a Rivers earl of Devon; but the
English denotes the xvth, rather than the xiiith century.
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PART IV
the objects of their paternal care. The sums which they paid
for livery and seizin attest the greatness of their possessions;
and several estates have remained in their family since the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In war, the Courtenays
of England fulfilled the duties, and deserved the honors, of
chivalry. They were often intrusted to levy and command
the militia of Devonshire and Cornwall; they often attended
their supreme lord to the borders of Scotland; and in foreign
service, for a stipulated price, they sometimes maintained
fourscore men-at-arms and as many archers. By sea and land
they fought under the standard of the Edwards and Henries:
their names are conspicuous in battles, in tournaments, and
in the original list of the Order of the Garter; three brothers
shared the Spanish victory of the Black Prince; and in the
lapse of six generations, the English Courtenays had learned
to despise the nation and country from which they derived
their origin. In the quarrel of the two roses, the earls of Devon
adhered to the house of Lancaster; and three brothers successively died either in the field or on the scaffold. Their honors
and estates were restored by Henry the Seventh; a daughter of Edward the Fourth was not disgraced by the nuptials
of a Courtenay; their son, who was created Marquis of Exeter, enjoyed the favor of his cousin Henry the Eighth; and
in the camp of Cloth of Gold, he broke a lance against the
French monarch. But the favor of Henry was the prelude of
disgrace; his disgrace was the signal of death; and of the victims of the jealous tyrant, the marquis of Exeter is one of the
most noble and guiltless. His son Edward lived a prisoner
in the Tower, and died in exile at Padua; and the secret love
of Queen Mary, whom he slighted, perhaps for the princess
Elizabeth, has shed a romantic color on the story of this beautiful youth. The relics of his patrimony were conveyed into
strange families by the marriages of his four aunts; and his
personal honors, as if they had been legally extinct, were revived by the patents of succeeding princes. But there still
survived a lineal descendant of Hugh, the first earl of De163
CHAPTER LXI
PART IV
von, a younger branch of the Courtenays, who have been
seated at Powderham Castle above four hundred years, from
the reign of Edward the Third to the present hour. Their
estates have been increased by the grant and improvement
of lands in Ireland, and they have been recently restored to
the honors of the peerage. Yet the Courtenays still retain the
plaintive motto, which asserts the innocence, and deplores
the fall, of their ancient house.321 While they sigh for past
greatness, they are doubtless sensible of present blessings: in
the long series of the Courtenay annals, the most splendid
æra is likewise the most unfortunate; nor can an opulent peer
of Britain be inclined to envy the emperors of Constantinople,
who wandered over Europe to solicit alms for the support of
their dignity and the defence of their capital.
321 Ubi lapsus! Quid feci? a motto which was probably adopted by the Powderham branch, after the loss of the earldom of Devonshire, &c The primitive
arms of the Courtenays were, Or, three torteaux, Gules, which seem to denote
their affinity with Godfrey of Bouillon, and the ancient counts of Boulogne.
164
Chapter LXII
G REEK E MPERORS O F N ICE A ND
C ONSTANTINOPLE .
Part I
The
Greek
Emperors
Of
Nice
And
Constantinople.–
Elevation And Reign Of Michael Palæologus.–
His False Union With The Pope And The Latin
Church.–
Hostile Designs Of Charles Of Anjou.–
Revolt Of Sicily.–
War Of The Catalans In Asia And Greece.–
Revolutions And Present State Of Athens.
loss of Constantinople restored a momentary vigor to
T
the Greeks. From their palaces, the princes and nobles
were driven into the field; and the fragments of the falling
HE
monarchy were grasped by the hands of the most vigorous or
the most skilful candidates. In the long and barren pages of
the Byzantine annals,322 it would not be an easy task to equal
the two characters of Theodore Lascaris and John Ducas Vataces,323 who replanted and upheld the Roman standard at
Nice in Bithynia. The difference of their virtues was happily suited to the diversity of their situation. In his first efforts, the fugitive Lascaris commanded only three cities and
two thousand soldiers: his reign was the season of generous and active despair: in every military operation he staked
his life and crown; and his enemies of the Hellespont and
the Mæander, were surprised by his celerity and subdued by
his boldness. A victorious reign of eighteen years expanded
322 For the reigns of the Nicene emperors, more especially of John Vataces and
his son, their minister, George Acropolita, is the only genuine contemporary;
but George Pachymer returned to Constantinople with the Greeks at the age
of nineteen, (Hanckius de Script Byzant c 33, 34, p 564–578 Fabric Bibliot Græc
tom vi p 448–460) Yet the history of Nicephorus Gregoras, though of the xivth
century, is a valuable narrative from the taking of Constantinople by the Latins.
323 Nicephorus Gregoras (l ii c 1) distinguishes between the oxeia ormh of
Lascaris, and the eustaqeia of Vataces The two portraits are in a very good style.
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CHAPTER LXII
PART I
the principality of Nice to the magnitude of an empire. The
throne of his successor and son-in-law Vataces was founded
on a more solid basis, a larger scope, and more plentiful resources; and it was the temper, as well as the interest, of Vataces to calculate the risk, to expect the moment, and to insure the success, of his ambitious designs. In the decline of
the Latins, I have briefly exposed the progress of the Greeks;
the prudent and gradual advances of a conqueror, who, in
a reign of thirty-three years, rescued the provinces from national and foreign usurpers, till he pressed on all sides the
Imperial city, a leafless and sapless trunk, which must full at
the first stroke of the axe. But his interior and peaceful administration is still more deserving of notice and praise.324
The calamities of the times had wasted the numbers and the
substance of the Greeks; the motives and the means of agriculture were extirpated; and the most fertile lands were left
without cultivation or inhabitants. A portion of this vacant
property was occupied and improved by the command, and
for the benefit, of the emperor: a powerful hand and a vigilant eye supplied and surpassed, by a skilful management,
the minute diligence of a private farmer: the royal domain
became the garden and granary of Asia; and without impoverishing the people, the sovereign acquired a fund of innocent and productive wealth. According to the nature of the
soil, his lands were sown with corn or planted with vines;
the pastures were filled with horses and oxen, with sheep and
hogs; and when Vataces presented to the empress a crown of
diamonds and pearls, he informed her, with a smile, that this
precious ornament arose from the sale of the eggs of his innumerable poultry. The produce of his domain was applied to
the maintenance of his palace and hospitals, the calls of dignity and benevolence: the lesson was still more useful than
the revenue: the plough was restored to its ancient security
and honor; and the nobles were taught to seek a sure and
324 Pachymer, l i c 23, 24 Nic Greg l ii c 6 The reader of the Byzantines must
observe how rarely we are indulged with such precious details.
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CHAPTER LXII
PART I
independent revenue from their estates, instead of adorning
their splendid beggary by the oppression of the people, or
(what is almost the same) by the favors of the court. The superfluous stock of corn and cattle was eagerly purchased by
the Turks, with whom Vataces preserved a strict and sincere
alliance; but he discouraged the importation of foreign manufactures, the costly silks of the East, and the curious labors
of the Italian looms. “The demands of nature and necessity,”
was he accustomed to say, “are indispensable; but the influence of fashion may rise and sink at the breath of a monarch;”
and both his precept and example recommended simplicity
of manners and the use of domestic industry. The education
of youth and the revival of learning were the most serious
objects of his care; and, without deciding the precedency, he
pronounced with truth, that a prince and a philosopher325 are
the two most eminent characters of human society. His first
wife was Irene, the daughter of Theodore Lascaris, a woman
more illustrious by her personal merit, the milder virtues of
her sex, than by the blood of the Angeli and Comneni that
flowed in her veins, and transmitted the inheritance of the
empire. After her death he was contracted to Anne, or Constance, a natural daughter of the emperor Frederic326 the Second; but as the bride had not attained the years of puberty,
Vataces placed in his solitary bed an Italian damsel of her
train; and his amorous weakness bestowed on the concubine
the honors, though not the title, of a lawful empress. His
frailty was censured as a flagitious and damnable sin by the
monks; and their rude invectives exercised and displayed the
patience of the royal lover. A philosophic age may excuse a
single vice, which was redeemed by a crowd of virtues; and
in the review of his faults, and the more intemperate passions
of Lascaris, the judgment of their contemporaries was soft325 Monoi gar apantwn anqrwpwn onomastotatoi basileuV kai jilosojoV,
(Greg Acropol c 32) The emperor, in a familiar conversation, examined and
encouraged the studies of his future logothete.
326 Sister of Manfred, afterwards king of Naples Nic Greg p 45–M.
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CHAPTER LXII
PART I
ened by gratitude to the second founders of the empire.327
The slaves of the Latins, without law or peace, applauded
the happiness of their brethren who had resumed their national freedom; and Vataces employed the laudable policy of
convincing the Greeks of every dominion that it was their interest to be enrolled in the number of his subjects.
A strong shade of degeneracy is visible between John Vataces and his son Theodore; between the founder who sustained the weight, and the heir who enjoyed the splendor,
of the Imperial crown.328 Yet the character of Theodore was
not devoid of energy; he had been educated in the school of
his father, in the exercise of war and hunting; Constantinople was yet spared; but in the three years of a short reign, he
thrice led his armies into the heart of Bulgaria. His virtues
were sullied by a choleric and suspicious temper: the first of
these may be ascribed to the ignorance of control; and the second might naturally arise from a dark and imperfect view of
the corruption of mankind. On a march in Bulgaria, he consulted on a question of policy his principal ministers; and the
Greek logothete, George Acropolita, presumed to offend him
by the declaration of a free and honest opinion. The emperor
half unsheathed his cimeter; but his more deliberate rage reserved Acropolita for a baser punishment. One of the first
officers of the empire was ordered to dismount, stripped of
his robes, and extended on the ground in the presence of the
prince and army. In this posture he was chastised with so
many and such heavy blows from the clubs of two guards
or executioners, that when Theodore commanded them to
cease, the great logothete was scarcely able to rise and crawl
away to his tent. After a seclusion of some days, he was re327 Compare Acropolita, (c 18, 52,) and the two first books of Nicephorus Gregoras.
328 A Persian saying, that Cyrus was the father and Darius the master, of his
subjects, was applied to Vataces and his son But Pachymer (l i c 23) has mistaken
the mild Darius for the cruel Cambyses, despot or tyrant of his people By the
institution of taxes, Darius had incurred the less odious, but more contemptible,
name of KaphloV, merchant or broker, (Herodotus, iii 89).
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called by a peremptory mandate to his seat in council; and so
dead were the Greeks to the sense of honor and shame, that
it is from the narrative of the sufferer himself that we acquire
the knowledge of his disgrace.329 The cruelty of the emperor
was exasperated by the pangs of sickness, the approach of a
premature end, and the suspicion of poison and magic. The
lives and fortunes, the eyes and limbs, of his kinsmen and
nobles, were sacrificed to each sally of passion; and before he
died, the son of Vataces might deserve from the people, or
at least from the court, the appellation of tyrant. A matron
of the family of the Palæologi had provoked his anger by refusing to bestow her beauteous daughter on the vile plebeian
who was recommended by his caprice. Without regard to
her birth or age, her body, as high as the neck, was enclosed
in a sack with several cats, who were pricked with pins to irritate their fury against their unfortunate fellow-captive. In
his last hours the emperor testified a wish to forgive and be
forgiven, a just anxiety for the fate of John his son and successor, who, at the age of eight years, was condemned to the
dangers of a long minority. His last choice intrusted the office of guardian to the sanctity of the patriarch Arsenius, and
to the courage of George Muzalon, the great domestic, who
was equally distinguished by the royal favor and the public hatred. Since their connection with the Latins, the names
and privileges of hereditary rank had insinuated themselves
into the Greek monarchy; and the noble families330 were provoked by the elevation of a worthless favorite, to whose influence they imputed the errors and calamities of the late reign.
In the first council, after the emperor’s death, Muzalon, from
a lofty throne, pronounced a labored apology of his conduct
329 Acropolita (c 63) seems to admire his own firmness in sustaining a beating, and not returning to council till he was called He relates the exploits of
Theodore, and his own services, from c 53 to c 74 of his history See the third
book of Nicephorus Gregoras.
330 Pachymer (l i c 21) names and discriminates fifteen or twenty Greek families, kai osoi alloi, oiV h megalogenhV seira kai crush sugkekrothto Does he
mean, by this decoration, a figurative or a real golden chain? Perhaps, both.
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and intentions: his modesty was subdued by a unanimous
assurance of esteem and fidelity; and his most inveterate enemies were the loudest to salute him as the guardian and savior of the Romans. Eight days were sufficient to prepare the
execution of the conspiracy. On the ninth, the obsequies of
the deceased monarch were solemnized in the cathedral of
Magnesia,331 an Asiatic city, where he expired, on the banks
of the Hermus, and at the foot of Mount Sipylus. The holy
rites were interrupted by a sedition of the guards; Muzalon,
his brothers, and his adherents, were massacred at the foot of
the altar; and the absent patriarch was associated with a new
colleague, with Michael Palæologus, the most illustrious, in
birth and merit, of the Greek nobles.332
Of those who are proud of their ancestors, the far greater
part must be content with local or domestic renown; and
few there are who dare trust the memorials of their family
to the public annals of their country. As early as the middle of the eleventh century, the noble race of the Palæologi333
stands high and conspicuous in the Byzantine history: it was
the valiant George Palæologus who placed the father of the
Comneni on the throne; and his kinsmen or descendants continue, in each generation, to lead the armies and councils of
the state. The purple was not dishonored by their alliance,
and had the law of succession, and female succession, been
strictly observed, the wife of Theodore Lascaris must have
yielded to her elder sister, the mother of Michael Palæologus,
331 The old geographers, with Cellarius and D’Anville, and our travellers, particularly Pocock and Chandler, will teach us to distinguish the two Magnesias
of Asia Minor, of the Mæander and of Sipylus The latter, our present object, is
still flourishing for a Turkish city, and lies eight hours, or leagues, to the northeast of Smyrna, (Tournefort, Voyage du Levant, tom iii lettre xxii p 365–370
Chandler’s Travels into Asia Minor, p 267).
332 See Acropolita, (c 75, 76, &c,) who lived too near the times; Pachymer, (l i
c 13–25,) Gregoras, (l iii c 3, 4, 5).
333 The pedigree of Palæologus is explained by Ducange, (Famil Byzant p 230,
&c:) the events of his private life are related by Pachymer (l i c 7–12) and Gregoras (l ii 8, l iii 2, 4, l iv 1) with visible favor to the father of the reigning dynasty.
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who afterwards raised his family to the throne. In his person, the splendor of birth was dignified by the merit of the
soldier and statesman: in his early youth he was promoted
to the office of constable or commander of the French mercenaries; the private expense of a day never exceeded three
pieces of gold; but his ambition was rapacious and profuse;
and his gifts were doubled by the graces of his conversation
and manners. The love of the soldiers and people excited the
jealousy of the court, and Michael thrice escaped from the
dangers in which he was involved by his own imprudence
or that of his friends. I. Under the reign of Justice and Vataces, a dispute arose334 between two officers, one of whom
accused the other of maintaining the hereditary right of the
Palæologi The cause was decided, according to the new jurisprudence of the Latins, by single combat; the defendant
was overthrown; but he persisted in declaring that himself
alone was guilty; and that he had uttered these rash or treasonable speeches without the approbation or knowledge of
his patron Yet a cloud of suspicion hung over the innocence of
the constable; he was still pursued by the whispers of malevolence; and a subtle courtier, the archbishop of Philadelphia,
urged him to accept the judgment of God in the fiery proof
of the ordeal.335 Three days before the trial, the patient’s arm
was enclosed in a bag, and secured by the royal signet; and
it was incumbent on him to bear a red-hot ball of iron three
times from the altar to the rails of the sanctuary, without artifice and without injury. Palæologus eluded the dangerous
experiment with sense and pleasantry. “I am a soldier,” said
he, “and will boldly enter the lists with my accusers; but a
layman, a sinner like myself, is not endowed with the gift
334 Acropolita (c 50) relates the circumstances of this curious adventure, which
seem to have escaped the more recent writers.
335 Pachymer, (l i c 12,) who speaks with proper contempt of this barbarous
trial, affirms, that he had seen in his youth many person who had sustained,
without injury, the fiery ordeal As a Greek, he is credulous; but the ingenuity
of the Greeks might furnish some remedies of art or fraud against their own
superstition, or that of their tyrant.
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of miracles. Your piety, most holy prelate, may deserve the
interposition of Heaven, and from your hands I will receive
the fiery globe, the pledge of my innocence.” The archbishop
started; the emperor smiled; and the absolution or pardon of
Michael was approved by new rewards and new services. II.
In the succeeding reign, as he held the government of Nice,
he was secretly informed, that the mind of the absent prince
was poisoned with jealousy; and that death, or blindness,
would be his final reward. Instead of awaiting the return and
sentence of Theodore, the constable, with some followers, escaped from the city and the empire; and though he was plundered by the Turkmans of the desert, he found a hospitable
refuge in the court of the sultan. In the ambiguous state of an
exile, Michael reconciled the duties of gratitude and loyalty:
drawing his sword against the Tartars; admonishing the garrisons of the Roman limit; and promoting, by his influence,
the restoration of peace, in which his pardon and recall were
honorably included. III. While he guarded the West against
the despot of Epirus, Michael was again suspected and condemned in the palace; and such was his loyalty or weakness,
that he submitted to be led in chains above six hundred miles
from Durazzo to Nice. The civility of the messenger alleviated his disgrace; the emperor’s sickness dispelled his danger; and the last breath of Theodore, which recommended
his infant son, at once acknowledged the innocence and the
power of Palæologus.
But his innocence had been too unworthily treated, and his
power was too strongly felt, to curb an aspiring subject in the
fair field that was opened to his ambition.336 In the council,
after the death of Theodore, he was the first to pronounce,
and the first to violate, the oath of allegiance to Muzalon;
and so dexterous was his conduct, that he reaped the ben336 Without comparing Pachymer to Thucydides or Tacitus, I will praise his
narrative, (l i c 13–32, l ii c 1–9,) which pursues the ascent of Palæologus with
eloquence, perspicuity, and tolerable freedom Acropolita is more cautious, and
Gregoras more concise.
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efit, without incurring the guilt, or at least the reproach, of
the subsequent massacre. In the choice of a regent, he balanced the interests and passions of the candidates; turned
their envy and hatred from himself against each other, and
forced every competitor to own, that after his own claims,
those of Palæologus were best entitled to the preference. Under the title of great duke, he accepted or assumed, during
a long minority, the active powers of government; the patriarch was a venerable name; and the factious nobles were
seduced, or oppressed, by the ascendant of his genius. The
fruits of the economy of Vataces were deposited in a strong
castle on the banks of the Hermus, in the custody of the faithful Varangians: the constable retained his command or influence over the foreign troops; he employed the guards to
possess the treasure, and the treasure to corrupt the guards;
and whatsoever might be the abuse of the public money, his
character was above the suspicion of private avarice. By himself, or by his emissaries, he strove to persuade every rank
of subjects, that their own prosperity would rise in just proportion to the establishment of his authority. The weight of
taxes was suspended, the perpetual theme of popular complaint; and he prohibited the trials by the ordeal and judicial combat. These Barbaric institutions were already abolished or undermined in France337 and England;338 and the
appeal to the sword offended the sense of a civilized,339 and
337 The judicial combat was abolished by St Louis in his own territories; and
his example and authority were at length prevalent in France, (Esprit des Loix,
l xxviii c 29).
338 In civil cases Henry II gave an option to the defendant: Glanville prefers
the proof by evidence; and that by judicial combat is reprobated in the Fleta
Yet the trial by battle has never been abrogated in the English law, and it was
ordered by the judges as late as the beginning of the last century * Note : And
even demanded in the present–M.
339 Yet an ingenious friend has urged to me in mitigation of this practice, 1
That in nations emerging from barbarism, it moderates the license of private
war and arbitrary revenge 2 That it is less absurd than the trials by the ordeal, or
boiling water, or the cross, which it has contributed to abolish 3 That it served at
least as a test of personal courage; a quality so seldom united with a base dispo-
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the temper of an unwarlike, people. For the future maintenance of their wives and children, the veterans were grateful: the priests and the philosophers applauded his ardent
zeal for the advancement of religion and learning; and his
vague promise of rewarding merit was applied by every candidate to his own hopes. Conscious of the influence of the
clergy, Michael successfully labored to secure the suffrage of
that powerful order. Their expensive journey from Nice to
Magnesia, afforded a decent and ample pretence: the leading
prelates were tempted by the liberality of his nocturnal visits;
and the incorruptible patriarch was flattered by the homage
of his new colleague, who led his mule by the bridle into
the town, and removed to a respectful distance the importunity of the crowd. Without renouncing his title by royal
descent, Palæologus encouraged a free discussion into the
advantages of elective monarchy; and his adherents asked,
with the insolence of triumph, what patient would trust his
health, or what merchant would abandon his vessel, to the
hereditary skill of a physician or a pilot? The youth of the emperor, and the impending dangers of a minority, required the
support of a mature and experienced guardian; of an associate raised above the envy of his equals, and invested with
the name and prerogatives of royalty. For the interest of the
prince and people, without any selfish views for himself or
his family, the great duke consented to guard and instruct
the son of Theodore; but he sighed for the happy moment
when he might restore to his firmer hands the administration of his patrimony, and enjoy the blessings of a private station. He was first invested with the title and prerogatives of
despot, which bestowed the purple ornaments and the second
place in the Roman monarchy. It was afterwards agreed that
John and Michael should be proclaimed as joint emperors,
sition, that the danger of a trial might be some check to a malicious prosecutor,
and a useful barrier against injustice supported by power The gallant and unfortunate earl of Surrey might probably have escaped his unmerited fate, had
not his demand of the combat against his accuser been overruled.
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and raised on the buckler, but that the preeminence should
be reserved for the birthright of the former. A mutual league
of amity was pledged between the royal partners; and in case
of a rupture, the subjects were bound, by their oath of allegiance, to declare themselves against the aggressor; an ambiguous name, the seed of discord and civil war. Palæologus was content; but, on the day of the coronation, and in
the cathedral of Nice, his zealous adherents most vehemently
urged the just priority of his age and merit. The unseasonable dispute was eluded by postponing to a more convenient
opportunity the coronation of John Lascaris; and he walked
with a slight diadem in the train of his guardian, who alone
received the Imperial crown from the hands of the patriarch.
It was not without extreme reluctance that Arsenius abandoned the cause of his pupil; out the Varangians brandished
their battle-axes; a sign of assent was extorted from the trembling youth; and some voices were heard, that the life of a
child should no longer impede the settlement of the nation.
A full harvest of honors and employments was distributed
among his friends by the grateful Palæologus. In his own
family he created a despot and two sebastocrators; Alexius
Strategopulus was decorated with the title of Cæsar; and that
veteran commander soon repaid the obligation, by restoring
Constantinople to the Greek emperor.
It was in the second year of his reign, while he resided in
the palace and gardens of Nymphæum,340 near Smyrna, that
the first messenger arrived at the dead of night; and the stupendous intelligence was imparted to Michael, after he had
been gently waked by the tender precaution of his sister Eulogia. The man was unknown or obscure; he produced no letters from the victorious Cæsar; nor could it easily be credited,
after the defeat of Vataces and the recent failure of Palæolo340 The site of Nymphæum is not clearly defined in ancient or modern geography But from the last hours of Vataces, (Acropolita, c 52,) it is evident
the palace and gardens of his favorite residence were in the neighborhood of
Smyrna Nymphæum might be loosely placed in Lydia, (Gregoras, l vi 6).
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gus himself, that the capital had been surprised by a detachment of eight hundred soldiers. As a hostage, the doubtful
author was confined, with the assurance of death or an ample
recompense; and the court was left some hours in the anxiety of hope and fear, till the messengers of Alexius arrived
with the authentic intelligence, and displayed the trophies of
the conquest, the sword and sceptre,341 the buskins and bonnet,342 of the usurper Baldwin, which he had dropped in his
precipitate flight. A general assembly of the bishops, senators, and nobles, was immediately convened, and never perhaps was an event received with more heartfelt and universal
joy. In a studied oration, the new sovereign of Constantinople
congratulated his own and the public fortune. “There was
a time,” said he, “a far distant time, when the Roman empire extended to the Adriatic, the Tigris, and the confines of
Æthiopia. After the loss of the provinces, our capital itself,
in these last and calamitous days, has been wrested from our
hands by the Barbarians of the West. From the lowest ebb,
the tide of prosperity has again returned in our favor; but
our prosperity was that of fugitives and exiles: and when we
were asked, which was the country of the Romans, we indicated with a blush the climate of the globe, and the quarter of
the heavens. The divine Providence has now restored to our
arms the city of Constantine, the sacred seat of religion and
empire; and it will depend on our valor and conduct to render this important acquisition the pledge and omen of future
victories.” So eager was the impatience of the prince and people, that Michael made his triumphal entry into Constantinople only twenty days after the expulsion of the Latins. The
golden gate was thrown open at his approach; the devout
341 This sceptre, the emblem of justice and power, was a long staff, such as
was used by the heroes in Homer By the latter Greeks it was named Dicanice,
and the Imperial sceptre was distinguished as usual by the red or purple color.
342 Acropolita affirms (c 87,) that this “Onnet” was after the French fashion;
but from the ruby at the point or summit, Ducange (Hist de C P l v c 28, 29) believes that it was the high-crowned hat of the Greeks Could Acropolita mistake
the dress of his own court?.
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conqueror dismounted from his horse; and a miraculous image of Mary the Conductress was borne before him, that the
divine Virgin in person might appear to conduct him to the
temple of her Son, the cathedral of St. Sophia. But after the
first transport of devotion and pride, he sighed at the dreary
prospect of solitude and ruin. The palace was defiled with
smoke and dirt, and the gross intemperance of the Franks;
whole streets had been consumed by fire, or were decayed
by the injuries of time; the sacred and profane edifices were
stripped of their ornaments: and, as if they were conscious
of their approaching exile, the industry of the Latins had
been confined to the work of pillage and destruction. Trade
had expired under the pressure of anarchy and distress, and
the numbers of inhabitants had decreased with the opulence
of the city. It was the first care of the Greek monarch to
reinstate the nobles in the palaces of their fathers; and the
houses or the ground which they occupied were restored to
the families that could exhibit a legal right of inheritance. But
the far greater part was extinct or lost; the vacant property
had devolved to the lord; he repeopled Constantinople by a
liberal invitation to the provinces; and the brave volunteers
were seated in the capital which had been recovered by their
arms. The French barons and the principal families had retired with their emperor; but the patient and humble crowd
of Latins was attached to the country, and indifferent to the
change of masters. Instead of banishing the factories of the
Pisans, Venetians, and Genoese, the prudent conqueror accepted their oaths of allegiance, encouraged their industry,
confirmed their privileges, and allowed them to live under
the jurisdiction of their proper magistrates. Of these nations,
the Pisans and Venetians preserved their respective quarters
in the city; but the services and power of the Genoese deserved at the same time the gratitude and the jealousy of the
Greeks. Their independent colony was first planted at the
seaport town of Heraclea in Thrace. They were speedily recalled, and settled in the exclusive possession of the suburb of
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Galata, an advantageous post, in which they revived the commerce, and insulted the majesty, of the Byzantine empire.343
The recovery of Constantinople was celebrated as the æra
of a new empire: the conqueror, alone, and by the right of the
sword, renewed his coronation in the church of St. Sophia;
and the name and honors of John Lascaris, his pupil and
lawful sovereign, were insensibly abolished. But his claims
still lived in the minds of the people; and the royal youth
must speedily attain the years of manhood and ambition. By
fear or conscience, Palæologus was restrained from dipping
his hands in innocent and royal blood; but the anxiety of a
usurper and a parent urged him to secure his throne by one
of those imperfect crimes so familiar to the modern Greeks.
The loss of sight incapacitated the young prince for the active business of the world; instead of the brutal violence of
tearing out his eyes, the visual nerve was destroyed by the
intense glare of a red-hot basin,344 and John Lascaris was removed to a distant castle, where he spent many years in privacy and oblivion. Such cool and deliberate guilt may seem
incompatible with remorse; but if Michael could trust the
mercy of Heaven, he was not inaccessible to the reproaches
and vengeance of mankind, which he had provoked by cruelty and treason. His cruelty imposed on a servile court the
duties of applause or silence; but the clergy had a right to
speak in the name of their invisible Master; and their holy legions were led by a prelate, whose character was above the
temptations of hope or fear. After a short abdication of his
343 See Pachymer, (l ii c 28–33,) Acropolita, (c 88,) Nicephorus Gregoras, (l iv
7,) and for the treatment of the subject Latins, Ducange, (l v c 30, 31).
344 This milder invention for extinguishing the sight was tried by the philosopher Democritus on himself, when he sought to withdraw his mind from the
visible world: a foolish story! The word abacinare, in Latin and Italian, has furnished Ducange (Gloss Lat) with an opportunity to review the various modes of
blinding: the more violent were scooping, burning with an iron, or hot vinegar,
and binding the head with a strong cord till the eyes burst from their sockets
Ingenious tyrants!.
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dignity, Arsenius345 had consented to ascend the ecclesiastical throne of Constantinople, and to preside in the restoration of the church. His pious simplicity was long deceived
by the arts of Palæologus; and his patience and submission
might soothe the usurper, and protect the safety of the young
prince. On the news of his inhuman treatment, the patriarch
unsheathed the spiritual sword; and superstition, on this occasion, was enlisted in the cause of humanity and justice.
In a synod of bishops, who were stimulated by the example of his zeal, the patriarch pronounced a sentence of excommunication; though his prudence still repeated the name
of Michael in the public prayers. The Eastern prelates had
not adopted the dangerous maxims of ancient Rome; nor did
they presume to enforce their censures, by deposing princes,
or absolving nations from their oaths of allegiance. But the
Christian, who had been separated from God and the church,
became an object of horror; and, in a turbulent and fanatic
capital, that horror might arm the hand of an assassin, or inflame a sedition of the people. Palæologus felt his danger,
confessed his guilt, and deprecated his judge: the act was irretrievable; the prize was obtained; and the most rigorous
penance, which he solicited, would have raised the sinner
to the reputation of a saint. The unrelenting patriarch refused to announce any means of atonement or any hopes
of mercy; and condescended only to pronounce, that for so
great a crime, great indeed must be the satisfaction. “Do you
require,” said Michael, “that I should abdicate the empire?”
and at these words, he offered, or seemed to offer, the sword
of state. Arsenius eagerly grasped this pledge of sovereignty;
but when he perceived that the emperor was unwilling to
purchase absolution at so dear a rate, he indignantly escaped
to his cell, and left the royal sinner kneeling and weeping be345 See the first retreat and restoration of Arsenius, in Pachymer (l ii c 15, l iii
c 1, 2) and Nicephorus Gregoras, (l iii c 1, l iv c 1) Posterity justly accused the
ajeleia and raqumia of Arsenius the virtues of a hermit, the vices of a minister,
(l xii c 2).
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fore the door.346
346 The crime and excommunication of Michael are fairly told by Pachymer (l
iii c 10, 14, 19, &c) and Gregoras, (l iv c 4) His confession and penance restored
their freedom.
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Part II
danger and scandal of this excommunication subsisted
T
above three years, till the popular clamor was assuaged
by time and repentance; till the brethren of Arsenius conHE
demned his inflexible spirit, so repugnant to the unbounded
forgiveness of the gospel. The emperor had artfully insinuated, that, if he were still rejected at home, he might seek,
in the Roman pontiff, a more indulgent judge; but it was far
more easy and effectual to find or to place that judge at the
head of the Byzantine church. Arsenius was involved in a
vague rumor of conspiracy and disaffection;347 some irregular steps in his ordination and government were liable to
censure; a synod deposed him from the episcopal office; and
he was transported under a guard of soldiers to a small island
of the Propontis. Before his exile, he sullenly requested that
a strict account might be taken of the treasures of the church;
boasted, that his sole riches, three pieces of gold, had been
earned by transcribing the psalms; continued to assert the
freedom of his mind; and denied, with his last breath, the pardon which was implored by the royal sinner.348 After some
delay, Gregory, [259 bishop of Adrianople, was translated to
the Byzantine throne; but his authority was found insufficient
to support the absolution of the emperor; and Joseph, a reverend monk, was substituted to that important function. This
edifying scene was represented in the presence of the senate
347 Except the omission of a prayer for the emperor, the charges against Arsenius were of different nature: he was accused of having allowed the sultan of
Iconium to bathe in vessels signed with the cross, and to have admitted him to
the church, though unbaptized, during the service It was pleaded, in favor of
Arsenius, among other proofs of the sultan’s Christianity, that he had offered
to eat ham Pachymer, l iv c 4, p 265 It was after his exile that he was involved
in a charge of conspiracy–M.
348 Pachymer relates the exile of Arsenius, (l iv c 1–16:) he was one of the
commissaries who visited him in the desert island The last testament of the
unforgiving patriarch is still extant, (Dupin, Bibliothèque Ecclésiastique, tom x
p 95).
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PART II
and the people; at the end of six years the humble penitent
was restored to the communion of the faithful; and humanity will rejoice, that a milder treatment of the captive Lascaris
was stipulated as a proof of his remorse. But the spirit of Arsenius still survived in a powerful faction of the monks and
clergy, who persevered about forty-eight years in an obstinate schism. Their scruples were treated with tenderness and
respect by Michael and his son; and the reconciliation of the
Arsenites was the serious labor of the church and state. In the
confidence of fanaticism, they had proposed to try their cause
by a miracle; and when the two papers, that contained their
own and the adverse cause, were cast into a fiery brazier,
they expected that the Catholic verity would be respected by
the flames. Alas! the two papers were indiscriminately consumed, and this unforeseen accident produced the union of
a day, and renewed the quarrel of an age.349 The final treaty
displayed the victory of the Arsenites: the clergy abstained
during forty days from all ecclesiastical functions; a slight
penance was imposed on the laity; the body of Arsenius was
deposited in the sanctuary; and, in the name of the departed
saint, the prince and people were released from the sins of
their fathers.350
The establishment of his family was the motive, or at least
the pretence, of the crime of Palæologus; and he was impatient to confirm the succession, by sharing with his eldest son
the honors of the purple. Andronicus, afterwards surnamed
the Elder, was proclaimed and crowned emperor of the Romans, in the fifteenth year of his age; and, from the first æra
of a prolix and inglorious reign, he held that august title nine
349 Pachymer (l vii c 22) relates this miraculous trial like a philosopher, and
treats with similar contempt a plot of the Arsenites, to hide a revelation in the
coffin of some old saint, (l vii c 13) He compensates this incredulity by an image
that weeps, another that bleeds, (l vii c 30,) and the miraculous cures of a deaf
and a mute patient, (l xi c 32).
350 The story of the Arsenites is spread through the thirteen books of
Pachymer Their union and triumph are reserved for Nicephorus Gregoras, (l
vii c 9,) who neither loves nor esteems these sectaries.
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PART II
years as the colleague, and fifty as the successor, of his father.
Michael himself, had he died in a private station, would have
been thought more worthy of the empire; and the assaults
of his temporal and spiritual enemies left him few moments
to labor for his own fame or the happiness of his subjects.
He wrested from the Franks several of the noblest islands
of the Archipelago, Lesbos, Chios, and Rhodes: his brother
Constantine was sent to command in Malvasia and Sparta;
and the eastern side of the Morea, from Argos and Napoli to
Cape Thinners, was repossessed by the Greeks. This effusion
of Christian blood was loudly condemned by the patriarch;
and the insolent priest presumed to interpose his fears and
scruples between the arms of princes. But in the prosecution
of these western conquests, the countries beyond the Hellespont were left naked to the Turks; and their depredations
verified the prophecy of a dying senator, that the recovery of
Constantinople would be the ruin of Asia. The victories of
Michael were achieved by his lieutenants; his sword rusted
in the palace; and, in the transactions of the emperor with the
popes and the king of Naples, his political acts were stained
with cruelty and fraud.351
I. The Vatican was the most natural refuge of a Latin emperor, who had been driven from his throne; and Pope Urban
the Fourth appeared to pity the misfortunes, and vindicate
the cause, of the fugitive Baldwin. A crusade, with plenary
indulgence, was preached by his command against the schismatic Greeks: he excommunicated their allies and adherents;
solicited Louis the Ninth in favor of his kinsman; and demanded a tenth of the ecclesiastical revenues of France and
England for the service of the holy war.352 The subtle Greek,
351 Of the xiii books of Pachymer, the first six (as the ivth and vth of Nicephorus Gregoras) contain the reign of Michael, at the time of whose death he was
forty years of age Instead of breaking, like his editor the Père Poussin, his history into two parts, I follow Ducange and Cousin, who number the xiii books
in one series.
352 Ducange, Hist de C P l v c 33, &c, from the Epistles of Urban IV.
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who watched the rising tempest of the West, attempted to
suspend or soothe the hostility of the pope, by suppliant embassies and respectful letters; but he insinuated that the establishment of peace must prepare the reconciliation and obedience of the Eastern church. The Roman court could not be
deceived by so gross an artifice; and Michael was admonished, that the repentance of the son should precede the forgiveness of the father; and that faith (an ambiguous word)
was the only basis of friendship and alliance. After a long
and affected delay, the approach of danger, and the importunity of Gregory the Tenth, compelled him to enter on a more
serious negotiation: he alleged the example of the great Vataces; and the Greek clergy, who understood the intentions of
their prince, were not alarmed by the first steps of reconciliation and respect. But when he pressed the conclusion of the
treaty, they strenuously declared, that the Latins, though not
in name, were heretics in fact, and that they despised those
strangers as the vilest and most despicable portion of the human race.353 It was the task of the emperor to persuade, to
corrupt, to intimidate the most popular ecclesiastics, to gain
the vote of each individual, and alternately to urge the arguments of Christian charity and the public welfare. The texts
of the fathers and the arms of the Franks were balanced in the
theological and political scale; and without approving the addition to the Nicene creed, the most moderate were taught to
confess, that the two hostile propositions of proceeding from
the Father by the Son, and of proceeding from the Father and
the Son, might be reduced to a safe and Catholic sense.354
The supremacy of the pope was a doctrine more easy to con353 From their mercantile intercourse with the Venetians and Genoese, they
branded the Latins as kaphloi and banausoi, (Pachymer, l v c 10) “Some are
heretics in name; others, like the Latins, in fact,” said the learned Veccus, (l v c
12,) who soon afterwards became a convert (c 15, 16) and a patriarch, (c 24).
354 In this class we may place Pachymer himself, whose copious and candid
narrative occupies the vth and vith books of his history Yet the Greek is silent
on the council of Lyons, and seems to believe that the popes always resided in
Rome and Italy, (l v c 17, 21).
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ceive, but more painful to acknowledge: yet Michael represented to his monks and prelates, that they might submit to
name the Roman bishop as the first of the patriarchs; and
that their distance and discretion would guard the liberties
of the Eastern church from the mischievous consequences of
the right of appeal. He protested that he would sacrifice his
life and empire rather than yield the smallest point of orthodox faith or national independence; and this declaration was
sealed and ratified by a golden bull. The patriarch Joseph
withdrew to a monastery, to resign or resume his throne, according to the event of the treaty: the letters of union and
obedience were subscribed by the emperor, his son Andronicus, and thirty-five archbishops and metropolitans, with their
respective synods; and the episcopal list was multiplied by
many dioceses which were annihilated under the yoke of the
infidels. An embassy was composed of some trusty ministers
and prelates: they embarked for Italy, with rich ornaments
and rare perfumes for the altar of St. Peter; and their secret orders authorized and recommended a boundless compliance.
They were received in the general council of Lyons, by Pope
Gregory the Tenth, at the head of five hundred bishops.355 He
embraced with tears his long-lost and repentant children; accepted the oath of the ambassadors, who abjured the schism
in the name of the two emperors; adorned the prelates with
the ring and mitre; chanted in Greek and Latin the Nicene
creed with the addition of filioque; and rejoiced in the union
of the East and West, which had been reserved for his reign.
To consummate this pious work, the Byzantine deputies were
speedily followed by the pope’s nuncios; and their instruction discloses the policy of the Vatican, which could not be
satisfied with the vain title of supremacy. After viewing the
temper of the prince and people, they were enjoined to absolve the schismatic clergy, who should subscribe and swear
their abjuration and obedience; to establish in all the churches
355 See the acts of the council of Lyons in the year 1274 Fleury, Hist Ecclésiastique, tom xviii p 181–199 Dupin, Bibliot Ecclés tom x p 135.
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the use of the perfect creed; to prepare the entrance of a cardinal legate, with the full powers and dignity of his office; and
to instruct the emperor in the advantages which he might derive from the temporal protection of the Roman pontiff.356
But they found a country without a friend, a nation in
which the names of Rome and Union were pronounced with
abhorrence. The patriarch Joseph was indeed removed: his
place was filled by Veccus, an ecclesiastic of learning and
moderation; and the emperor was still urged by the same
motives, to persevere in the same professions. But in his
private language Palæologus affected to deplore the pride,
and to blame the innovations, of the Latins; and while he debased his character by this double hypocrisy, he justified and
punished the opposition of his subjects. By the joint suffrage
of the new and the ancient Rome, a sentence of excommunication was pronounced against the obstinate schismatics;
the censures of the church were executed by the sword of
Michael; on the failure of persuasion, he tried the arguments
of prison and exile, of whipping and mutilation; those touchstones, says an historian, of cowards and the brave. Two
Greeks still reigned in Ætolia, Epirus, and Thessaly, with the
appellation of despots: they had yielded to the sovereign of
Constantinople, but they rejected the chains of the Roman
pontiff, and supported their refusal by successful arms. Under their protection, the fugitive monks and bishops assembled in hostile synods; and retorted the name of heretic with
the galling addition of apostate: the prince of Trebizond was
tempted to assume the forfeit title of emperor;357 and even
the Latins of Negropont, Thebes, Athens, and the Morea, forgot the merits of the convert, to join, with open or clandestine aid, the enemies of Palæologus. His favorite generals,
of his own blood, and family, successively deserted, or be356 This curious instruction, which has been drawn with more or less honesty
by Wading and Leo Allatius from the archives of the Vatican, is given in an
abstract or version by Fleury, (tom xviii p 252–258).
357 According to Fallmarayer he had always maintained this title–M.
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trayed, the sacrilegious trust. His sister Eulogia, a niece, and
two female cousins, conspired against him; another niece,
Mary queen of Bulgaria, negotiated his ruin with the sultan of Egypt; and, in the public eye, their treason was consecrated as the most sublime virtue.358 To the pope’s nuncios, who urged the consummation of the work, Palæologus
exposed a naked recital of all that he had done and suffered
for their sake. They were assured that the guilty sectaries,
of both sexes and every rank, had been deprived of their
honors, their fortunes, and their liberty; a spreading list of
confiscation and punishment, which involved many persons,
the dearest to the emperor, or the best deserving of his favor.
They were conducted to the prison, to behold four princes
of the royal blood chained in the four corners, and shaking
their fetters in an agony of grief and rage. Two of these captives were afterwards released; the one by submission, the
other by death: but the obstinacy of their two companions
was chastised by the loss of their eyes; and the Greeks, the
least adverse to the union, deplored that cruel and inauspicious tragedy.359 Persecutors must expect the hatred of those
whom they oppress; but they commonly find some consolation in the testimony of their conscience, the applause of their
party, and, perhaps, the success of their undertaking. But the
hypocrisy of Michael, which was prompted only by political
motives, must have forced him to hate himself, to despise his
followers, and to esteem and envy the rebel champions by
whom he was detested and despised. While his violence was
abhorred at Constantinople, at Rome his slowness was arraigned, and his sincerity suspected; till at length Pope Mar358 This frank and authentic confession of Michael’s distress is exhibited in
barbarous Latin by Ogerius, who signs himself Protonotarius Interpretum, and
transcribed by Wading from the MSS of the Vatican, (AD 1278, No 3) His annals
of the Franciscan order, the Fratres Minores, in xvii volumes in folio, (Rome,
1741,) I have now accidentally seen among the waste paper of a bookseller.
359 See the vith book of Pachymer, particularly the chapters 1, 11, 16, 18, 24–27
He is the more credible, as he speaks of this persecution with less anger than
sorrow.
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tin the Fourth excluded the Greek emperor from the pale of
a church, into which he was striving to reduce a schismatic
people. No sooner had the tyrant expired, than the union was
dissolved, and abjured by unanimous consent; the churches
were purified; the penitents were reconciled; and his son Andronicus, after weeping the sins and errors of his youth most
piously denied his father the burial of a prince and a Christian.360
II. In the distress of the Latins, the walls and towers of
Constantinople had fallen to decay: they were restored and
fortified by the policy of Michael, who deposited a plenteous store of corn and salt provisions, to sustain the siege
which he might hourly expect from the resentment of the
Western powers. Of these, the sovereign of the Two Sicilies
was the most formidable neighbor: but as long as they were
possessed by Mainfroy, the bastard of Frederic the Second,
his monarchy was the bulwark, rather than the annoyance,
of the Eastern empire. The usurper, though a brave and
active prince, was sufficiently employed in the defence of
his throne: his proscription by successive popes had separated Mainfroy from the common cause of the Latins; and
the forces that might have besieged Constantinople were detained in a crusade against the domestic enemy of Rome. The
prize of her avenger, the crown of the Two Sicilies, was won
and worn by the brother of St Louis, by Charles count of Anjou and Provence, who led the chivalry of France on this holy
expedition.361 The disaffection of his Christian subjects com360 Pachymer, l vii c 1–ii 17 The speech of Andronicus the Elder (lib xii c 2) is a
curious record, which proves that if the Greeks were the slaves of the emperor,
the emperor was not less the slave of superstition and the clergy.
361 The best accounts, the nearest the time, the most full and entertaining, of
the conquest of Naples by Charles of Anjou, may be found in the Florentine
Chronicles of Ricordano Malespina, (c 175–193,) and Giovanni Villani, (l vii c
1–10, 25–30,) which are published by Muratori in the viiith and xiiith volumes
of the Historians of Italy In his Annals (tom xi p 56–72) he has abridged these
great events which are likewise described in the Istoria Civile of Giannone tom
l xix tom iii l xx.
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pelled Mainfroy to enlist a colony of Saracens whom his father had planted in Apulia; and this odious succor will explain the defiance of the Catholic hero, who rejected all terms
of accommodation. “Bear this message,” said Charles, “to
the sultan of Nocera, that God and the sword are umpire between us; and that he shall either send me to paradise, or I
will send him to the pit of hell.” The armies met: and though I
am ignorant of Mainfroy’s doom in the other world, in this he
lost his friends, his kingdom, and his life, in the bloody battle of Benevento. Naples and Sicily were immediately peopled with a warlike race of French nobles; and their aspiring
leader embraced the future conquest of Africa, Greece, and
Palestine. The most specious reasons might point his first
arms against the Byzantine empire; and Palæologus, diffident of his own strength, repeatedly appealed from the ambition of Charles to the humanity of St. Louis, who still preserved a just ascendant over the mind of his ferocious brother.
For a while the attention of that brother was confined at home
by the invasion of Conradin, the last heir to the imperial
house of Swabia; but the hapless boy sunk in the unequal
conflict; and his execution on a public scaffold taught the rivals of Charles to tremble for their heads as well as their dominions. A second respite was obtained by the last crusade
of St. Louis to the African coast; and the double motive of
interest and duty urged the king of Naples to assist, with his
powers and his presence, the holy enterprise. The death of St.
Louis released him from the importunity of a virtuous censor:
the king of Tunis confessed himself the tributary and vassal
of the crown of Sicily; and the boldest of the French knights
were free to enlist under his banner against the Greek empire.
A treaty and a marriage united his interest with the house
of Courtenay; his daughter Beatrice was promised to Philip,
son and heir of the emperor Baldwin; a pension of six hundred ounces of gold was allowed for his maintenance; and
his generous father distributed among his aliens the kingdoms and provinces of the East, reserving only Constantino190
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ple, and one day’s journey round the city for the imperial domain.362 In this perilous moment, Palæologus was the most
eager to subscribe the creed, and implore the protection, of
the Roman pontiff, who assumed, with propriety and weight,
the character of an angel of peace, the common father of the
Christians. By his voice, the sword of Charles was chained in
the scabbard; and the Greek ambassadors beheld him, in the
pope’s antechamber, biting his ivory sceptre in a transport
of fury, and deeply resenting the refusal to enfranchise and
consecrate his arms. He appears to have respected the disinterested mediation of Gregory the Tenth; but Charles was
insensibly disgusted by the pride and partiality of Nicholas
the Third; and his attachment to his kindred, the Ursini family, alienated the most strenuous champion from the service
of the church. The hostile league against the Greeks, of Philip
the Latin emperor, the king of the Two Sicilies, and the republic of Venice, was ripened into execution; and the election of Martin the Fourth, a French pope, gave a sanction
to the cause. Of the allies, Philip supplied his name; Martin, a bull of excommunication; the Venetians, a squadron
of forty galleys; and the formidable powers of Charles consisted of forty counts, ten thousand men at arms, a numerous body of infantry, and a fleet of more than three hundred
ships and transports. A distant day was appointed for assembling this mighty force in the harbor of Brindisi; and a previous attempt was risked with a detachment of three hundred
knights, who invaded Albania, and besieged the fortress of
Belgrade. Their defeat might amuse with a triumph the vanity of Constantinople; but the more sagacious Michael, despairing of his arms, depended on the effects of a conspiracy;
on the secret workings of a rat, who gnawed the bowstring363
of the Sicilian tyrant.
362 Ducange, Hist de C P l v c 49–56, l vi c 1–13 See Pachymer, l iv c 29, l v c
7–10, 25 l vi c 30, 32, 33, and Nicephorus Gregoras, l iv 5, l v 1, 6.
363 The reader of Herodotus will recollect how miraculously the Assyrian host
of Sennacherib was disarmed and destroyed, (l ii c 141).
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Among the proscribed adherents of the house of Swabia,
John of Procida forfeited a small island of that name in the
Bay of Naples. His birth was noble, but his education was
learned; and in the poverty of exile, he was relieved by the
practice of physic, which he had studied in the school of
Salerno. Fortune had left him nothing to lose, except life;
and to despise life is the first qualification of a rebel. Procida was endowed with the art of negotiation, to enforce his
reasons and disguise his motives; and in his various transactions with nations and men, he could persuade each party
that he labored solely for their interest. The new kingdoms
of Charles were afflicted by every species of fiscal and military oppression;364 and the lives and fortunes of his Italian
subjects were sacrificed to the greatness of their master and
the licentiousness of his followers. The hatred of Naples was
repressed by his presence; but the looser government of his
vicegerents excited the contempt, as well as the aversion, of
the Sicilians: the island was roused to a sense of freedom by
the eloquence of Procida; and he displayed to every baron
his private interest in the common cause. In the confidence
of foreign aid, he successively visited the courts of the Greek
emperor, and of Peter king of Arragon,365 who possessed the
maritime countries of Valentia and Catalonia. To the ambitious Peter a crown was presented, which he might justly
claim by his marriage with the sister366 of Mainfroy, and by
the dying voice of Conradin, who from the scaffold had cast
a ring to his heir and avenger. Palæologus was easily persuaded to divert his enemy from a foreign war by a rebel364 According to Sabas Malaspina, (Hist Sicula, l iii c 16, in Muratori, tom viii
p 832,) a zealous Guelph, the subjects of Charles, who had reviled Mainfroy as
a wolf, began to regret him as a lamb; and he justifies their discontent by the
oppressions of the French government, (l vi c 2, 7) See the Sicilian manifesto in
Nicholas Specialis, (l i c 11, in Muratori, tom x p 930).
365 See the character and counsels of Peter, king of Arragon, in Mariana, (Hist
Hispan l xiv c 6, tom ii p 133) The reader for gives the Jesuit’s defects, in favor,
always of his style, and often of his sense.
366 Daughter See Hallam’s Middle Ages, vol i p 517–M.
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lion at home; and a Greek subsidy of twenty-five thousand
ounces of gold was most profitably applied to arm a Catalan fleet, which sailed under a holy banner to the specious
attack of the Saracens of Africa. In the disguise of a monk or
beggar, the indefatigable missionary of revolt flew from Constantinople to Rome, and from Sicily to Saragossa: the treaty
was sealed with the signet of Pope Nicholas himself, the enemy of Charles; and his deed of gift transferred the fiefs of St.
Peter from the house of Anjou to that of Arragon. So widely
diffused and so freely circulated, the secret was preserved
above two years with impenetrable discretion; and each of
the conspirators imbibed the maxim of Peter, who declared
that he would cut off his left hand if it were conscious of the
intentions of his right. The mine was prepared with deep
and dangerous artifice; but it may be questioned, whether
the instant explosion of Palermo were the effect of accident
or design.
On the vigil of Easter, a procession of the disarmed citizens
visited a church without the walls; and a noble damsel was
rudely insulted by a French soldier.367 The ravisher was instantly punished with death; and if the people was at first
scattered by a military force, their numbers and fury prevailed: the conspirators seized the opportunity; the flame
spread over the island; and eight thousand French were exterminated in a promiscuous massacre, which has obtained
the name of the Sicilian Vespers.368 From every city the banners of freedom and the church were displayed: the revolt
was inspired by the presence or the soul of Procida and Peter
of Arragon, who sailed from the African coast to Palermo,
367 After enumerating the sufferings of his country, Nicholas Specialis adds,
in the true spirit of Italian jealousy, Quæ omnia et graviora quidem, ut arbitror, patienti animo Siculi tolerassent, nisi (quod primum cunctis dominantibus
cavendum est) alienas fminas invasissent, (l i c 2, p 924).
368 The French were long taught to remember this bloody lesson: “If I am provoked, (said Henry the Fourth,) I will breakfast at Milan, and dine at Naples”
“Your majesty (replied the Spanish ambassador) may perhaps arrive in Sicily
for vespers”.
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was saluted as the king and savior of the isle. By the rebellion of a people on whom he had so long trampled with
impunity, Charles was astonished and confounded; and in
the first agony of grief and devotion, he was heard to exclaim, “O God! if thou hast decreed to humble me, grant
me at least a gentle and gradual descent from the pinnacle
of greatness!” His fleet and army, which already filled the
seaports of Italy, were hastily recalled from the service of the
Grecian war; and the situation of Messina exposed that town
to the first storm of his revenge. Feeble in themselves, and
yet hopeless of foreign succor, the citizens would have repented, and submitted on the assurance of full pardon and
their ancient privileges. But the pride of the monarch was already rekindled; and the most fervent entreaties of the legate
could extort no more than a promise, that he would forgive
the remainder, after a chosen list of eight hundred rebels had
been yielded to his discretion. The despair of the Messinese
renewed their courage: Peter of Arragon approached to their
relief;369 and his rival was driven back by the failure of provision and the terrors of the equinox to the Calabrian shore. At
the same moment, the Catalan admiral, the famous Roger de
Loria, swept the channel with an invincible squadron: the
French fleet, more numerous in transports than in galleys,
was either burnt or destroyed; and the same blow assured
the independence of Sicily and the safety of the Greek empire. A few days before his death, the emperor Michael rejoiced in the fall of an enemy whom he hated and esteemed;
and perhaps he might be content with the popular judgment,
that had they not been matched with each other, Constantinople and Italy must speedily have obeyed the same master.370
369 This revolt, with the subsequent victory, are related by two national writers, Bartholemy à Neocastro (in Muratori, tom xiii,) and Nicholas Specialis (in
Muratori, tom x,) the one a contemporary, the other of the next century The patriot Specialis disclaims the name of rebellion, and all previous correspondence
with Peter of Arragon, (nullo communicato consilio,) who happened to be with
a fleet and army on the African coast, (l i c 4, 9).
370 Nicephorus Gregoras (l v c 6) admires the wisdom of Providence in this
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From this disastrous moment, the life of Charles was a series
of misfortunes: his capital was insulted, his son was made
prisoner, and he sunk into the grave without recovering the
Isle of Sicily, which, after a war of twenty years, was finally
severed from the throne of Naples, and transferred, as an independent kingdom, to a younger branch of the house of Arragon.371
equal balance of states and princes For the honor of Palæologus, I had rather
this balance had been observed by an Italian writer.
371 See the Chronicle of Villani, the xith volume of the Annali d’Italia of Muratori, and the xxth and xxist books of the Istoria Civile of Giannone.
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not, I trust, be accused of superstition; but I must reIwillshall
mark that, even in this world, the natural order of events
sometimes afford the strong appearances of moral retribution. The first Palæologus had saved his empire by involving the kingdoms of the West in rebellion and blood;
and from these scenes of discord uprose a generation of iron
men, who assaulted and endangered the empire of his son.
In modern times our debts and taxes are the secret poison
which still corrodes the bosom of peace: but in the weak and
disorderly government of the middle ages, it was agitated by
the present evil of the disbanded armies. Too idle to work,
too proud to beg, the mercenaries were accustomed to a life
of rapine: they could rob with more dignity and effect under a banner and a chief; and the sovereign, to whom their
service was useless, and their presence importunate, endeavored to discharge the torrent on some neighboring countries.
After the peace of Sicily, many thousands of Genoese, Catalans,372 &c., who had fought, by sea and land, under the standard of Anjou or Arragon, were blended into one nation by
the resemblance of their manners and interest. They heard
that the Greek provinces of Asia were invaded by the Turks:
they resolved to share the harvest of pay and plunder: and
Frederic king of Sicily most liberally contributed the means
of their departure. In a warfare of twenty years, a ship, or a
camp, was become their country; arms were their sole profession and property; valor was the only virtue which they
knew; their women had imbibed the fearless temper of their
lovers and husbands: it was reported, that, with a stroke of
their broadsword, the Catalans could cleave a horseman and
a horse; and the report itself was a powerful weapon. Roger
372 In this motley multitude, the Catalans and Spaniards, the bravest of the
soldiery, were styled by themselves and the Greeks Amogavares Moncada derives their origin from the Goths, and Pachymer (l xi c 22) from the Arabs; and
in spite of national and religious pride, I am afraid the latter is in the right.
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de Flor373 was the most popular of their chiefs; and his personal merit overshadowed the dignity of his prouder rivals
of Arragon. The offspring of a marriage between a German
gentleman of the court of Frederic the Second and a damsel
of Brindisi, Roger was successively a templar, an apostate,
a pirate, and at length the richest and most powerful admiral of the Mediterranean. He sailed from Messina to Constantinople, with eighteen galleys, four great ships, and eight
thousand adventurers;374 and his previous treaty was faithfully accomplished by Andronicus the elder, who accepted
with joy and terror this formidable succor. A palace was
allotted for his reception, and a niece of the emperor was
given in marriage to the valiant stranger, who was immediately created great duke or admiral of Romania. After a
decent repose, he transported his troops over the Propontis,
and boldly led them against the Turks: in two bloody battles thirty thousand of the Moslems were slain: he raised the
siege of Philadelphia, and deserved the name of the deliverer
of Asia. But after a short season of prosperity, the cloud of
slavery and ruin again burst on that unhappy province. The
inhabitants escaped (says a Greek historian) from the smoke
into the flames; and the hostility of the Turks was less pernicious than the friendship of the Catalans.375 The lives and
fortunes which they had rescued they considered as their
own: the willing or reluctant maid was saved from the race of
circumcision for the embraces of a Christian soldier: the exaction of fines and supplies was enforced by licentious rapine
373 On Roger de Flor and his companions, see an historical fragment, detailed
and interesting, entitled “The Spaniards of the Fourteenth Century,” and inserted in “L’Espagne en 1808,” a work translated from the German, vol ii p 167
This narrative enables us to detect some slight errors which have crept into that
of Gibbon–G.
374 The troops of Roger de Flor, according to his companions Ramon de Montaner, were 1500 men at arms, 4000 Almogavares, and 1040 other foot, besides
the sailors and mariners, vol ii p 137–M.
375 Ramon de Montaner suppresses the cruelties and oppressions of the Catalans, in which, perhaps, he shared–M.
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and arbitrary executions; and, on the resistance of Magnesia,
the great duke besieged a city of the Roman empire.376 These
disorders he excused by the wrongs and passions of a victorious army; nor would his own authority or person have
been safe, had he dared to punish his faithful followers, who
were defrauded of the just and covenanted price of their services. The threats and complaints of Andronicus disclosed
the nakedness of the empire. His golden bull had invited no
more than five hundred horse and a thousand foot soldiers;
yet the crowds of volunteers, who migrated to the East, had
been enlisted and fed by his spontaneous bounty. While his
bravest allies were content with three byzants or pieces of
gold, for their monthly pay, an ounce, or even two ounces,
of gold were assigned to the Catalans, whose annual pension would thus amount to near a hundred pounds sterling:
one of their chiefs had modestly rated at three hundred thousand crowns the value of his future merits; and above a million had been issued from the treasury for the maintenance
of these costly mercenaries. A cruel tax had been imposed
on the corn of the husbandman: one third was retrenched
from the salaries of the public officers; and the standard of the
coin was so shamefully debased, that of the four-and-twenty
parts only five were of pure gold.377 At the summons of the
emperor, Roger evacuated a province which no longer supplied the materials of rapine; but he refused to disperse his
376 Some idea may be formed of the population of these cities, from the 36,000
inhabitants of Tralles, which, in the preceding reign, was rebuilt by the emperor,
and ruined by the Turks (Pachymer, l vi c 20, 21).
377 I have collected these pecuniary circumstances from Pachymer, (l xi c 21,
l xii c 4, 5, 8, 14, 19,) who describes the progressive degradation of the gold
coin Even in the prosperous times of John Ducas Vataces, the byzants were
composed in equal proportions of the pure and the baser metal The poverty
of Michael Palæologus compelled him to strike a new coin, with nine parts, or
carats, of gold, and fifteen of copper alloy After his death, the standard rose
to ten carats, till in the public distress it was reduced to the moiety The prince
was relieved for a moment, while credit and commerce were forever blasted
In France, the gold coin is of twenty-two carats, (one twelfth alloy,) and the
standard of England and Holland is still higher.
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troops; and while his style was respectful, his conduct was
independent and hostile. He protested, that if the emperor
should march against him, he would advance forty paces
to kiss the ground before him; but in rising from this prostrate attitude Roger had a life and sword at the service of his
friends. The great duke of Romania condescended to accept
the title and ornaments of Cæsar; but he rejected the new proposal of the government of Asia with a subsidy of corn and
money,378 on condition that he should reduce his troops to
the harmless number of three thousand men. Assassination
is the last resource of cowards. The Cæsar was tempted to
visit the royal residence of Adrianople; in the apartment, and
before the eyes, of the empress he was stabbed by the Alani
guards; and though the deed was imputed to their private
revenge,379 his countrymen, who dwelt at Constantinople in
the security of peace, were involved in the same proscription
by the prince or people. The loss of their leader intimidated
the crowd of adventurers, who hoisted the sails of flight, and
were soon scattered round the coasts of the Mediterranean.
But a veteran band of fifteen hundred Catalans, or French,
stood firm in the strong fortress of Gallipoli on the Hellespont, displayed the banners of Arragon, and offered to revenge and justify their chief, by an equal combat of ten or
a hundred warriors. Instead of accepting this bold defiance,
the emperor Michael, the son and colleague of Andronicus,
resolved to oppress them with the weight of multitudes: every nerve was strained to form an army of thirteen thousand
horse and thirty thousand foot; and the Propontis was covered with the ships of the Greeks and Genoese. In two battles
by sea and land, these mighty forces were encountered and
overthrown by the despair and discipline of the Catalans: the
young emperor fled to the palace; and an insufficient guard
378 Andronicus paid the Catalans in the debased money, much to their
indignation–M.
379 According to Ramon de Montaner, he was murdered by order of Kyr (kurioV) Michael, son of the emperor p 170–M.
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PART III
of light-horse was left for the protection of the open country.
Victory renewed the hopes and numbers of the adventures:
every nation was blended under the name and standard of
the great company; and three thousand Turkish proselytes deserted from the Imperial service to join this military association. In the possession of Gallipoli,380 the Catalans intercepted the trade of Constantinople and the Black Sea, while
they spread their devastation on either side of the Hellespont
over the confines of Europe and Asia. To prevent their approach, the greatest part of the Byzantine territory was laid
waste by the Greeks themselves: the peasants and their cattle retired into the city; and myriads of sheep and oxen, for
which neither place nor food could be procured, were unprofitably slaughtered on the same day. Four times the emperor Andronicus sued for peace, and four times he was inflexibly repulsed, till the want of provisions, and the discord
of the chiefs, compelled the Catalans to evacuate the banks
of the Hellespont and the neighborhood of the capital. After
their separation from the Turks, the remains of the great company pursued their march through Macedonia and Thessaly,
to seek a new establishment in the heart of Greece.381
380 Ramon de Montaner describes his sojourn at Gallipoli: Nous etions si
riches, que nous ne semions, ni ne labourions, ni ne faisions enver des vins
ni ne cultivions les vignes: et cependant tous les ans nous recucillions tour ce
qu’il nous fallait, en vin, froment et avoine p 193 This lasted for five merry years
Ramon de Montaner is high authority, for he was “chancelier et maitre rational
de l’armée,” (commissary of rations) He was left governor; all the scribes of the
army remained with him, and with their aid he kept the books in which were
registered the number of horse and foot employed on each expedition According to this book the plunder was shared, of which he had a fifth for his trouble
p 197–M.
381 The Catalan war is most copiously related by Pachymer, in the xith, xiith,
and xiiith books, till he breaks off in the year 1308 Nicephorus Gregoras (l vii
3–6) is more concise and complete Ducange, who adopts these adventurers as
French, has hunted their footsteps with his usual diligence, (Hist de C P l vi
c 22–46) He quotes an Arragonese history, which I have read with pleasure,
and which the Spaniards extol as a model of style and composition, (Expedicion de los Catalanes y Arragoneses contra Turcos y Griegos: Barcelona, 1623 in
quarto: Madrid, 1777, in octavo) Don Francisco de Moncada Conde de Ossona,
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PART III
After some ages of oblivion, Greece was awakened to new
misfortunes by the arms of the Latins. In the two hundred
and fifty years between the first and the last conquest of Constantinople, that venerable land was disputed by a multitude
of petty tyrants; without the comforts of freedom and genius, her ancient cities were again plunged in foreign and intestine war; and, if servitude be preferable to anarchy, they
might repose with joy under the Turkish yoke. I shall not
pursue the obscure and various dynasties, that rose and fell
on the continent or in the isles; but our silence on the fate of
Athens382 would argue a strange ingratitude to the first and
purest school of liberal science and amusement. In the partition of the empire, the principality of Athens and Thebes
was assigned to Otho de la Roche, a noble warrior of Burgundy,383 with the title of great duke,384 which the Latins
understood in their own sense, and the Greeks more foolishly derived from the age of Constantine.385 Otho followed
the standard of the marquis of Montferrat: the ample state
may imitate Cæsar or Sallust; he may transcribe the Greek or Italian contemporaries: but he never quotes his authorities, and I cannot discern any national
records of the exploits of his countrymen * Note: Ramon de Montaner, one of
the Catalans, who accompanied Roger de Flor, and who was governor of Gallipoli, has written, in Spanish, the history of this band of adventurers, to which
he belonged, and from which he separated when it left the Thracian Chersonese to penetrate into Macedonia and Greece–G—-The autobiography of Ramon
de Montaner has been published in French by M Buchon, in the great collection
of Mémoires relatifs à l’Histoire de France I quote this edition–M.
382 See the laborious history of Ducange, whose accurate table of the French
dynasties recapitulates the thirty-five passages, in which he mentions the dukes
of Athens.
383 He is twice mentioned by Villehardouin with honor, (No 151, 235;) and
under the first passage, Ducange observes all that can be known of his person
and family.
384 From these Latin princes of the xivth century, Boccace, Chaucer and Shakspeare, have borrowed their Theseus duke of Athens An ignorant age transfers
its own language and manners to the most distant times.
385 The same Constantine gave to Sicily a king, to Russia the magnus dapifer
of the empire, to Thebes the primicerius; and these absurd fables are properly
lashed by Ducange, (ad Nicephor Greg l vii c 5) By the Latins, the lord of Thebes
was styled, by corruption, the Megas Kurios, or Grand Sire!.
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which he acquired by a miracle of conduct or fortune,386 was
peaceably inherited by his son and two grandsons, till the
family, though not the nation, was changed, by the marriage
of an heiress into the elder branch of the house of Brienne.
The son of that marriage, Walter de Brienne, succeeded to
the duchy of Athens; and, with the aid of some Catalan mercenaries, whom he invested with fiefs, reduced above thirty
castles of the vassal or neighboring lords. But when he was
informed of the approach and ambition of the great company,
he collected a force of seven hundred knights, six thousand
four hundred horse, and eight thousand foot, and boldly met
them on the banks of the River Cephisus in Botia. The Catalans amounted to no more than three thousand five hundred
horse, and four thousand foot; but the deficiency of numbers was compensated by stratagem and order. They formed
round their camp an artificial inundation; the duke and his
knights advanced without fear or precaution on the verdant
meadow; their horses plunged into the bog; and he was cut in
pieces, with the greatest part of the French cavalry. His family
and nation were expelled; and his son Walter de Brienne, the
titular duke of Athens, the tyrant of Florence, and the constable of France, lost his life in the field of Poitiers Attica and Botia were the rewards of the victorious Catalans; they married
the widows and daughters of the slain; and during fourteen
years, the great company was the terror of the Grecian states.
Their factions drove them to acknowledge the sovereignty
of the house of Arragon; and during the remainder of the
fourteenth century, Athens, as a government or an appanage,
was successively bestowed by the kings of Sicily. After the
French and Catalans, the third dynasty was that of the Accaioli, a family, plebeian at Florence, potent at Naples, and
386 Quodam miraculo, says Alberic He was probably received by Michael Choniates, the archbishop who had defended Athens against the tyrant Leo Sgurus,
(Nicetas urbs capta, p 805, ed Bek) Michael was the brother of the historian Nicetas; and his encomium of Athens is still extant in MS in the Bodleian library,
(Fabric Bibliot Græc tom vi p 405) * Note: Nicetas says expressly that Michael
surrendered the Acropolis to the marquis–M.
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PART III
sovereign in Greece. Athens, which they embellished with
new buildings, became the capital of a state, that extended
over Thebes, Argos, Corinth, Delphi, and a part of Thessaly;
and their reign was finally determined by Mahomet the Second, who strangled the last duke, and educated his sons in
the discipline and religion of the seraglio.
Athens,387 though no more than the shadow of her former
self, still contains about eight or ten thousand inhabitants;
of these, three fourths are Greeks in religion and language;
and the Turks, who compose the remainder, have relaxed, in
their intercourse with the citizens, somewhat of the pride and
gravity of their national character. The olive-tree, the gift of
Minerva, flourishes in Attica; nor has the honey of Mount
Hymettus lost any part of its exquisite flavor:388 but the languid trade is monopolized by strangers, and the agriculture
of a barren land is abandoned to the vagrant Walachians. The
Athenians are still distinguished by the subtlety and acuteness of their understandings; but these qualities, unless ennobled by freedom, and enlightened by study, will degenerate into a low and selfish cunning: and it is a proverbial saying of the country, “From the Jews of Thessalonica, the Turks
of Negropont, and the Greeks of Athens, good Lord deliver
us!” This artful people has eluded the tyranny of the Turkish bashaws, by an expedient which alleviates their servitude
and aggravates their shame. About the middle of the last century, the Athenians chose for their protector the Kislar Aga, or
chief black eunuch of the seraglio. This Æthiopian slave, who
387 The modern account of Athens, and the Athenians, is extracted from
Spon, (Voyage en Grece, tom ii p 79–199,) and Wheeler, (Travels into Greece,
p 337–414,) Stuart, (Antiquities of Athens, passim,) and Chandler, (Travels into
Greece, p 23–172) The first of these travellers visited Greece in the year 1676; the
last, 1765; and ninety years had not produced much difference in the tranquil
scene.
388 The ancients, or at least the Athenians, believed that all the bees in the
world had been propagated from Mount Hymettus They taught, that health
might be preserved, and life prolonged, by the external use of oil, and the internal use of honey, (Geoponica, l xv c 7, p 1089–1094, edit Niclas).
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PART III
possesses the sultan’s ear, condescends to accept the tribute of thirty thousand crowns: his lieutenant, the Waywode,
whom he annually confirms, may reserve for his own about
five or six thousand more; and such is the policy of the citizens, that they seldom fail to remove and punish an oppressive governor. Their private differences are decided by the
archbishop, one of the richest prelates of the Greek church,
since he possesses a revenue of one thousand pounds sterling; and by a tribunal of the eight geronti or elders, chosen in
the eight quarters of the city: the noble families cannot trace
their pedigree above three hundred years; but their principal
members are distinguished by a grave demeanor, a fur cap,
and the lofty appellation of archon. By some, who delight in
the contrast, the modern language of Athens is represented
as the most corrupt and barbarous of the seventy dialects of
the vulgar Greek:389 this picture is too darkly colored: but it
would not be easy, in the country of Plato and Demosthenes,
to find a reader or a copy of their works. The Athenians walk
with supine indifference among the glorious ruins of antiquity; and such is the debasement of their character, that they
are incapable of admiring the genius of their predecessors.390
389 Ducange, Glossar Græc Præfat p 8, who quotes for his author Theodosius
Zygomalas, a modern grammarian Yet Spon (tom ii p 194) and Wheeler, (p 355,)
no incompetent judges, entertain a more favorable opinion of the Attic dialect.
390 Yet we must not accuse them of corrupting the name of Athens, which they
still call Athini From the eiV thn ‘Aqhnhn, we have formed our own barbarism
of Setines * Note: Gibbon did not foresee a Bavarian prince on the throne of
Greece, with Athens as his capital–M.
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Chapter LXIII
C IVIL WARS A ND T HE R UIN O F T HE
G REEK E MPIRE
Part I
Civil Wars, And Ruin Of The Greek Empire.–
Reigns Of Andronicus, The Elder And Younger,
And John Palæologus.–
Regency, Revolt, Reign, And Abdication Of John
Cantacuzene.–
Establishment Of A Genoese Colony At Pera Or
Galata.–
Their Wars With The Empire And City Of Constantinople.
long reign of Andronicus391 the elder is chiefly memorable by the disputes of the Greek church, the invasion
of the Catalans, and the rise of the Ottoman power. He is celebrated as the most learned and virtuous prince of the age;
but such virtue, and such learning, contributed neither to the
perfection of the individual, nor to the happiness of society
A slave of the most abject superstition, he was surrounded
on all sides by visible and invisible enemies; nor were the
flames of hell less dreadful to his fancy, than those of a Catalan or Turkish war. Under the reign of the Palæologi, the
choice of the patriarch was the most important business of
the state; the heads of the Greek church were ambitious and
fanatic monks; and their vices or virtues, their learning or ignorance, were equally mischievous or contemptible. By his
intemperate discipline, the patriarch Athanasius392 excited
the hatred of the clergy and people: he was heard to declare, that the sinner should swallow the last dregs of the
T
HE
391 Andronicus himself will justify our freedom in the invective, (Nicephorus
Gregoras, l i c i,) which he pronounced against historic falsehood It is true, that
his censure is more pointedly urged against calumny than against adulation.
392 For the anathema in the pigeon’s nest, see Pachymer, (l ix c 24,) who relates
the general history of Athanasius, (l viii c 13–16, 20, 24, l x c 27–29, 31–36, l xi c
1–3, 5, 6, l xiii c 8, 10, 23, 35,) and is followed by Nicephorus Gregoras, (l vi c 5,
7, l vii c 1, 9,) who includes the second retreat of this second Chrysostom.
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PART I
cup of penance; and the foolish tale was propagated of his
punishing a sacrilegious ass that had tasted the lettuce of a
convent garden. Driven from the throne by the universal
clamor, Athanasius composed before his retreat two papers
of a very opposite cast. His public testament was in the tone
of charity and resignation; the private codicil breathed the
direst anathemas against the authors of his disgrace, whom
he excluded forever from the communion of the holy trinity, the angels, and the saints. This last paper he enclosed
in an earthen pot, which was placed, by his order, on the
top of one of the pillars, in the dome of St. Sophia, in the
distant hope of discovery and revenge. At the end of four
years, some youths, climbing by a ladder in search of pigeons’ nests, detected the fatal secret; and, as Andronicus
felt himself touched and bound by the excommunication, he
trembled on the brink of the abyss which had been so treacherously dug under his feet. A synod of bishops was instantly
convened to debate this important question: the rashness of
these clandestine anathemas was generally condemned; but
as the knot could be untied only by the same hand, as that
hand was now deprived of the crosier, it appeared that this
posthumous decree was irrevocable by any earthly power.
Some faint testimonies of repentance and pardon were extorted from the author of the mischief; but the conscience
of the emperor was still wounded, and he desired, with no
less ardor than Athanasius himself, the restoration of a patriarch, by whom alone he could be healed. At the dead of
night, a monk rudely knocked at the door of the royal bedchamber, announcing a revelation of plague and famine, of
inundations and earthquakes. Andronicus started from his
bed, and spent the night in prayer, till he felt, or thought that
he felt, a slight motion of the earth. The emperor on foot led
the bishops and monks to the cell of Athanasius; and, after
a proper resistance, the saint, from whom this message had
been sent, consented to absolve the prince, and govern the
church of Constantinople. Untamed by disgrace, and hard207
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PART I
ened by solitude, the shepherd was again odious to the flock,
and his enemies contrived a singular, and as it proved, a successful, mode of revenge. In the night, they stole away the
footstool or foot-cloth of his throne, which they secretly replaced with the decoration of a satirical picture. The emperor
was painted with a bridle in his mouth, and Athanasius leading the tractable beast to the feet of Christ. The authors of the
libel were detected and punished; but as their lives had been
spared, the Christian priest in sullen indignation retired to
his cell; and the eyes of Andronicus, which had been opened
for a moment, were again closed by his successor.
If this transaction be one of the most curious and important
of a reign of fifty years, I cannot at least accuse the brevity of
my materials, since I reduce into some few pages the enormous folios of Pachymer,393 Cantacuzene,394 and Nicephorus Gregoras,395 who have composed the prolix and languid
story of the times. The name and situation of the emperor
John Cantacuzene might inspire the most lively curiosity.
His memorials of forty years extend from the revolt of the
younger Andronicus to his own abdication of the empire; and
it is observed, that, like Moses and Cæsar, he was the principal actor in the scenes which he describes. But in this eloquent work we should vainly seek the sincerity of a hero or a
penitent. Retired in a cloister from the vices and passions of
the world, he presents not a confession, but an apology, of the
life of an ambitious statesman. Instead of unfolding the true
393 Pachymer, in seven books, 377 folio pages, describes the first twenty-six
years of Andronicus the Elder; and marks the date of his composition by the
current news or lie of the day, (AD 1308) Either death or disgust prevented him
from resuming the pen.
394 After an interval of twelve years, from the conclusion of Pachymer, Cantacuzenus takes up the pen; and his first book (c 1–59, p 9–150) relates the civil
war, and the eight last years of the elder Andronicus The ingenious comparison
with Moses and Cæsar is fancied by his French translator, the president Cousin.
395 Nicephorus Gregoras more briefly includes the entire life and reign of Andronicus the elder, (l vi c 1, p 96–291) This is the part of which Cantacuzene
complains as a false and malicious representation of his conduct.
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PART I
counsels and characters of men, he displays the smooth and
specious surface of events, highly varnished with his own
praises and those of his friends. Their motives are always
pure; their ends always legitimate: they conspire and rebel
without any views of interest; and the violence which they
inflict or suffer is celebrated as the spontaneous effect of reason and virtue.
After the example of the first of the Palæologi, the elder Andronicus associated his son Michael to the honors of the purple; and from the age of eighteen to his premature death, that
prince was acknowledged, above twenty-five years, as the
second emperor of the Greeks.396 At the head of an army, he
excited neither the fears of the enemy, nor the jealousy of the
court; his modesty and patience were never tempted to compute the years of his father; nor was that father compelled to
repent of his liberality either by the virtues or vices of his son.
The son of Michael was named Andronicus from his grandfather, to whose early favor he was introduced by that nominal resemblance. The blossoms of wit and beauty increased
the fondness of the elder Andronicus; and, with the common
vanity of age, he expected to realize in the second, the hope
which had been disappointed in the first, generation. The boy
was educated in the palace as an heir and a favorite; and in
the oaths and acclamations of the people, the august triad was
formed by the names of the father, the son, and the grandson. But the younger Andronicus was speedily corrupted by
his infant greatness, while he beheld with puerile impatience
the double obstacle that hung, and might long hang, over his
rising ambition. It was not to acquire fame, or to diffuse happiness, that he so eagerly aspired: wealth and impunity were
396 He was crowned May 21st, 1295, and died October 12th, 1320, (Ducange,
Fam Byz p 239) His brother Theodore, by a second marriage, inherited the marquisate of Montferrat, apostatized to the religion and manners of the Latins, (oti
kai gnwmh kai pistei kai schkati, kai geneiwn koura kai pasin eqesin DatinoV
hn akraijnhV Nic Greg l ix c 1,) and founded a dynasty of Italian princes, which
was extinguished AD 1533, (Ducange, Fam Byz p 249–253).
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PART I
in his eyes the most precious attributes of a monarch; and
his first indiscreet demand was the sovereignty of some rich
and fertile island, where he might lead a life of independence
and pleasure. The emperor was offended by the loud and
frequent intemperance which disturbed his capital; the sums
which his parsimony denied were supplied by the Genoese
usurers of Pera; and the oppressive debt, which consolidated
the interest of a faction, could be discharged only by a revolution. A beautiful female, a matron in rank, a prostitute
in manners, had instructed the younger Andronicus in the
rudiments of love; but he had reason to suspect the nocturnal visits of a rival; and a stranger passing through the street
was pierced by the arrows of his guards, who were placed
in ambush at her door. That stranger was his brother, Prince
Manuel, who languished and died of his wound; and the emperor Michael, their common father, whose health was in a
declining state, expired on the eighth day, lamenting the loss
of both his children.397 However guiltless in his intention, the
younger Andronicus might impute a brother’s and a father’s
death to the consequence of his own vices; and deep was
the sigh of thinking and feeling men, when they perceived,
instead of sorrow and repentance, his ill-dissembled joy on
the removal of two odious competitors. By these melancholy
events, and the increase of his disorders, the mind of the elder
emperor was gradually alienated; and, after many fruitless
reproofs, he transferred on another grandson398 his hopes
and affection. The change was announced by the new oath
of allegiance to the reigning sovereign, and the person whom
he should appoint for his successor;
397 We are indebted to Nicephorus Gregoras (l viii c 1) for the knowledge of
this tragic adventure; while Cantacuzene more discreetly conceals the vices of
Andronicus the Younger, of which he was the witness and perhaps the associate, (l i c 1, &c).
398 His destined heir was Michael Catharus, the bastard of Constantine his
second son In this project of excluding his grandson Andronicus, Nicephorus
Gregoras (l viii c 3) agrees with Cantacuzene, (l i c 1, 2).
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CHAPTER LXIII
PART I
and the acknowledged heir, after a repetition of insults and
complaints, was exposed to the indignity of a public trial. Before the sentence, which would probably have condemned
him to a dungeon or a cell, the emperor was informed that
the palace courts were filled with the armed followers of his
grandson; the judgment was softened to a treaty of reconciliation; and the triumphant escape of the prince encouraged
the ardor of the younger faction.
Yet the capital, the clergy, and the senate, adhered to the
person, or at least to the government, of the old emperor; and
it was only in the provinces, by flight, and revolt, and foreign
succor, that the malecontents could hope to vindicate their
cause and subvert his throne. The soul of the enterprise was
the great domestic John Cantacuzene; the sally from Constantinople is the first date of his actions and memorials; and
if his own pen be most descriptive of his patriotism, an unfriendly historian has not refused to celebrate the zeal and
ability which he displayed in the service of the young emperor.399 That prince escaped from the capital under the pretence of hunting; erected his standard at Adrianople; and, in
a few days, assembled fifty thousand horse and foot, whom
neither honor nor duty could have armed against the Barbarians. Such a force might have saved or commanded the empire; but their counsels were discordant, their motions were
slow and doubtful, and their progress was checked by intrigue and negotiation. The quarrel of the two Andronici was
protracted, and suspended, and renewed, during a ruinous
period of seven years. In the first treaty, the relics of the Greek
empire were divided: Constantinople, Thessalonica, and the
islands, were left to the elder, while the younger acquired the
sovereignty of the greatest part of Thrace, from Philippi to
399 The conduct of Cantacuzene, by his own showing, was inexplicable He
was unwilling to dethrone the old emperor, and dissuaded the immediate
march on Constantinople The young Andronicus, he says, entered into his
views, and wrote to warn the emperor of his danger when the march was determined Cantacuzenus, in Nov Byz Hist Collect vol i p 104, &c–M.
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PART I
the Byzantine limit. By the second treaty, he stipulated the
payment of his troops, his immediate coronation, and an adequate share of the power and revenue of the state. The third
civil war was terminated by the surprise of Constantinople,
the final retreat of the old emperor, and the sole reign of his
victorious grandson. The reasons of this delay may be found
in the characters of the men and of the times. When the heir
of the monarchy first pleaded his wrongs and his apprehensions, he was heard with pity and applause: and his adherents repeated on all sides the inconsistent promise, that he
would increase the pay of the soldiers and alleviate the burdens of the people. The grievances of forty years were mingled in his revolt; and the rising generation was fatigued by
the endless prospect of a reign, whose favorites and maxims
were of other times. The youth of Andronicus had been without spirit, his age was without reverence: his taxes produced
an unusual revenue of five hundred thousand pounds; yet
the richest of the sovereigns of Christendom was incapable
of maintaining three thousand horse and twenty galleys, to
resist the destructive progress of the Turks.400 “How different,” said the younger Andronicus, “is my situation from that
of the son of Philip! Alexander might complain, that his father would leave him nothing to conquer: alas! my grandsire
will leave me nothing to lose.” But the Greeks were soon admonished, that the public disorders could not be healed by a
civil war; and that their young favorite was not destined to be
the savior of a falling empire. On the first repulse, his party
was broken by his own levity, their intestine discord, and the
intrigues of the ancient court, which tempted each malecontent to desert or betray the cause of the rebellion. Andronicus the younger was touched with remorse, or fatigued with
400 See Nicephorus Gregoras, l viii c 6 The younger Andronicus complained,
that in four years and four months a sum of 350,000 byzants of gold was due to
him for the expenses of his household, (Cantacuzen l i c 48) Yet he would have
remitted the debt, if he might have been allowed to squeeze the farmers of the
revenue.
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PART I
business, or deceived by negotiation: pleasure rather than
power was his aim; and the license of maintaining a thousand hounds, a thousand hawks, and a thousand huntsmen,
was sufficient to sully his fame and disarm his ambition.
Let us now survey the catastrophe of this busy plot, and
the final situation of the principal actors.401 The age of Andronicus was consumed in civil discord; and, amidst the
events of war and treaty, his power and reputation continually decayed, till the fatal night in which the gates of the
city and palace were opened without resistance to his grandson. His principal commander scorned the repeated warnings of danger; and retiring to rest in the vain security of ignorance, abandoned the feeble monarch, with some priests
and pages, to the terrors of a sleepless night. These terrors were quickly realized by the hostile shouts, which proclaimed the titles and victory of Andronicus the younger; and
the aged emperor, falling prostrate before an image of the
Virgin, despatched a suppliant message to resign the sceptre, and to obtain his life at the hands of the conqueror. The
answer of his grandson was decent and pious; at the prayer
of his friends, the younger Andronicus assumed the sole administration; but the elder still enjoyed the name and preeminence of the first emperor, the use of the great palace,
and a pension of twenty-four thousand pieces of gold, one
half of which was assigned on the royal treasury, and the
other on the fishery of Constantinople. But his impotence
was soon exposed to contempt and oblivion; the vast silence
of the palace was disturbed only by the cattle and poultry
of the neighborhood,402 which roved with impunity through
the solitary courts; and a reduced allowance of ten thousand
pieces of gold403 was all that he could ask, and more than
401 I follow the chronology of Nicephorus Gregoras, who is remarkably exact
It is proved that Cantacuzene has mistaken the dates of his own actions, or
rather that his text has been corrupted by ignorant transcribers.
402 And the washerwomen, according to Nic Gregoras, p 431–M.
403 I have endeavored to reconcile the 24,000 pieces of Cantacuzene (l ii c 1)
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PART I
he could hope. His calamities were imbittered by the gradual extinction of sight; his confinement was rendered each
day more rigorous; and during the absence and sickness of
his grandson, his inhuman keepers, by the threats of instant
death, compelled him to exchange the purple for the monastic habit and profession. The monk Antony had renounced
the pomp of the world; yet he had occasion for a coarse fur in
the winter season, and as wine was forbidden by his confessor, and water by his physician, the sherbet of Egypt was his
common drink. It was not without difficulty that the late emperor could procure three or four pieces to satisfy these simple wants; and if he bestowed the gold to relieve the more
painful distress of a friend, the sacrifice is of some weight
in the scale of humanity and religion. Four years after his
abdication, Andronicus or Antony expired in a cell, in the
seventy-fourth year of his age: and the last strain of adulation could only promise a more splendid crown of glory in
heaven than he had enjoyed upon earth.404405
Nor was the reign of the younger, more glorious or fortunate than that of the elder, Andronicus.406 He gathered the
fruits of ambition; but the taste was transient and bitter: in
the supreme station he lost the remains of his early popularity; and the defects of his character became still more conspicuous to the world. The public reproach urged him to march
in person against the Turks; nor did his courage fail in the
with the 10,000 of Nicephorus Gregoras, (l ix c 2;) the one of whom wished to
soften, the other to magnify, the hardships of the old emperor.
404 See Nicephorus Gregoras, (l ix 6, 7, 8, 10, 14, l x c 1) The historian had tasted
of the prosperity, and shared the retreat, of his benefactor; and that friendship
which “waits or to the scaffold or the cell,” should not lightly be accused as “a
hireling, a prostitute to praise” * Note: But it may be accused of unparalleled
absurdity He compares the extinction of the feeble old man to that of the sun:
his coffin is to be floated like Noah’s ark by a deluge of tears–M.
405 Prodigies (according to Nic Gregoras, p 460) announced the departure of
the old and imbecile Imperial Monk from his earthly prison–M.
406 The sole reign of Andronicus the younger is described by Cantacuzene (l
ii c 1–40, p 191–339) and Nicephorus Gregoras, (l ix c 7–l xi c 11, p 262–361).
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hour of trial; but a defeat and a wound were the only trophies
of his expedition in Asia, which confirmed the establishment
of the Ottoman monarchy. The abuses of the civil government attained their full maturity and perfection: his neglect
of forms, and the confusion of national dresses, are deplored
by the Greeks as the fatal symptoms of the decay of the empire. Andronicus was old before his time; the intemperance
of youth had accelerated the infirmities of age; and after being rescued from a dangerous malady by nature, or physic,
or the Virgin, he was snatched away before he had accomplished his forty-fifth year. He was twice married; and, as
the progress of the Latins in arms and arts had softened the
prejudices of the Byzantine court, his two wives were chosen in the princely houses of Germany and Italy. The first,
Agnes at home, Irene in Greece, was daughter of the duke of
Brunswick. Her father407 was a petty lord408 in the poor and
savage regions of the north of Germany:409 yet he derived
407 Agnes, or Irene, was the daughter of Duke Henry the Wonderful, the chief
of the house of Brunswick, and the fourth in descent from the famous Henry
the Lion, duke of Saxony and Bavaria, and conqueror of the Sclavi on the Baltic
coast Her brother Henry was surnamed the Greek, from his two journeys into
the East: but these journeys were subsequent to his sister’s marriage; and I
am ignorant how Agnes was discovered in the heart of Germany, and recommended to the Byzantine court (Rimius, Memoirs of the House of Brunswick,
p 126–137.
408 Henry the Wonderful was the founder of the branch of Grubenhagen, extinct in the year 1596, (Rimius, p 287) He resided in the castle of Wolfenbuttel,
and possessed no more than a sixth part of the allodial estates of Brunswick
and Luneburgh, which the Guelph family had saved from the confiscation of
their great fiefs The frequent partitions among brothers had almost ruined the
princely houses of Germany, till that just, but pernicious, law was slowly superseded by the right of primogeniture The principality of Grubenhagen, one
of the last remains of the Hercynian forest, is a woody, mountainous, and barren tract, (Busching’s Geography, vol vi p 270–286, English translation).
409 The royal author of the Memoirs of Brandenburgh will teach us, how
justly, in a much later period, the north of Germany deserved the epithets of
poor and barbarous (Essai sur les Murs, &c) In the year 1306, in the woods of
Luneburgh, some wild people of the Vened race were allowed to bury alive
their infirm and useless parents (Rimius, p 136).
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some revenue from his silver mines;410 and his family is celebrated by the Greeks as the most ancient and noble of the
Teutonic name.411 After the death of this childish princess,
Andronicus sought in marriage Jane, the sister of the count
of Savoy;412 and his suit was preferred to that of the French
king.413 The count respected in his sister the superior majesty
of a Roman empress: her retinue was composed of knights
and ladies; she was regenerated and crowned in St. Sophia,
under the more orthodox appellation of Anne; and, at the
nuptial feast, the Greeks and Italians vied with each other in
the martial exercises of tilts and tournaments.
The empress Anne of Savoy survived her husband: their
son, John Palæologus, was left an orphan and an emperor in
the ninth year of his age; and his weakness was protected
by the first and most deserving of the Greeks. The long and
cordial friendship of his father for John Cantacuzene is alike
honorable to the prince and the subject. It had been formed
amidst the pleasures of their youth: their families were almost equally noble;414 and the recent lustre of the purple
410 The assertion of Tacitus, that Germany was destitute of the precious metals, must be taken, even in his own time, with some limitation, (Germania, c 5
Annal xi 20) According to Spener, (Hist Germaniæ Pragmatica, tom i p 351,) Argentifodin in Hercyniis montibus, imperante Othone magno (AD 968) primum
apertæ, largam etiam opes augendi dederunt copiam: but Rimius (p 258, 259)
defers till the year 1016 the discovery of the silver mines of Grubenhagen, or
the Upper Hartz, which were productive in the beginning of the xivth century,
and which still yield a considerable revenue to the house of Brunswick.
411 Cantacuzene has given a most honorable testimony, hn d’ ek Germanvn
auth Jugathr doukoV nti Mprouzouhk, (the modern Greeks employ the nt for
the d, and the mp for the b, and the whole will read in the Italian idiom di
Brunzuic,) tou par autoiV epijanestatou, kai?iamprothti pantaV touV omojulouV uperballontoV The praise is just in itself, and pleasing to an English ear.
412 Anne, or Jane, was one of the four daughters of Amedée the Great, by a
second marriage, and half-sister of his successor Edward count of Savoy (Anderson’s Tables, p 650 See Cantacuzene, l i c 40–42).
413 That king, if the fact be true, must have been Charles the Fair who in five
years (1321–1326) was married to three wives, (Anderson, p 628) Anne of Savoy
arrived at Constantinople in February, 1326.
414 The noble race of the Cantacuzeni (illustrious from the xith century in the
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was amply compensated by the energy of a private education. We have seen that the young emperor was saved by
Cantacuzene from the power of his grandfather; and, after
six years of civil war, the same favorite brought him back in
triumph to the palace of Constantinople. Under the reign of
Andronicus the younger, the great domestic ruled the emperor and the empire; and it was by his valor and conduct
that the Isle of Lesbos and the principality of Ætolia were restored to their ancient allegiance. His enemies confess, that,
among the public robbers, Cantacuzene alone was moderate
and abstemious; and the free and voluntary account which he
produces of his own wealth415 may sustain the presumption
that he was devolved by inheritance, and not accumulated by
rapine. He does not indeed specify the value of his money,
plate, and jewels; yet, after a voluntary gift of two hundred
vases of silver, after much had been secreted by his friends
and plundered by his foes, his forfeit treasures were sufficient for the equipment of a fleet of seventy galleys. He does
not measure the size and number of his estates; but his granaries were heaped with an incredible store of wheat and barley; and the labor of a thousand yoke of oxen might cultivate,
according to the practice of antiquity, about sixty-two thousand five hundred acres of arable land.416 His pastures were
stocked with two thousand five hundred brood mares, two
hundred camels, three hundred mules, five hundred asses,
five thousand horned cattle, fifty thousand hogs, and seventy thousand sheep:417 a precious record of rural opulence,
Byzantine annals) was drawn from the Paladins of France, the heroes of those
romances which, in the xiiith century, were translated and read by the Greeks,
(Ducange, Fam Byzant p 258).
415 See Cantacuzene, (l iii c 24, 30, 36).
416 Saserna, in Gaul, and Columella, in Italy or Spain, allow two yoke of oxen,
two drivers, and six laborers, for two hundred jugera (125 English acres) of
arable land, and three more men must be added if there be much underwood,
(Columella de Re Rustica, l ii c 13, p 441, edit Gesner).
417 In this enumeration (l iii c 30) the French translation of the president
Cousin is blotted with three palpable and essential errors 1 He omits the 1000
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in the last period of the empire, and in a land, most probably
in Thrace, so repeatedly wasted by foreign and domestic hostility. The favor of Cantacuzene was above his fortune. In the
moments of familiarity, in the hour of sickness, the emperor
was desirous to level the distance between them and pressed
his friend to accept the diadem and purple. The virtue of the
great domestic, which is attested by his own pen, resisted the
dangerous proposal; but the last testament of Andronicus the
younger named him the guardian of his son, and the regent
of the empire.
Had the regent found a suitable return of obedience and
gratitude, perhaps he would have acted with pure and zealous fidelity in the service of his pupil.418 A guard of five hundred soldiers watched over his person and the palace; the funeral of the late emperor was decently performed; the capital
was silent and submissive; and five hundred letters, which
Cantacuzene despatched in the first month, informed the
provinces of their loss and their duty. The prospect of a tranquil minority was blasted by the great duke or admiral Apocaucus, and to exaggerate his perfidy, the Imperial historian
is pleased to magnify his own imprudence, in raising him to
that office against the advice of his more sagacious sovereign.
Bold and subtle, rapacious and profuse, the avarice and ambition of Apocaucus were by turns subservient to each other;
and his talents were applied to the ruin of his country. His arrogance was heightened by the command of a naval force and
an impregnable castle, and under the mask of oaths and flattery he secretly conspired against his benefactor. The female
court of the empress was bribed and directed; he encouraged
Anne of Savoy to assert, by the law of nature, the tutelage of
yoke of working oxen 2 He interprets the pentakosiai proV diaciliaiV, by the
number of fifteen hundred * 3 He confounds myriads with chiliads, and gives
Cantacuzene no more than 5000 hogs Put not your trust in translations! Note:
* There seems to be another reading, ciliaiV Niebuhr’s edit in loc–M.
418 See the regency and reign of John Cantacuzenus, and the whole progress
of the civil war, in his own history, (l iii c 1–100, p 348–700,) and in that of
Nicephorus Gregoras, (l xii c 1–l xv c 9, p 353–492).
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PART I
her son; the love of power was disguised by the anxiety of
maternal tenderness: and the founder of the Palæologi had
instructed his posterity to dread the example of a perfidious
guardian. The patriarch John of Apri was a proud and feeble old man, encompassed by a numerous and hungry kindred. He produced an obsolete epistle of Andronicus, which
bequeathed the prince and people to his pious care: the fate
of his predecessor Arsenius prompted him to prevent, rather
than punish, the crimes of a usurper; and Apocaucus smiled
at the success of his own flattery, when he beheld the Byzantine priest assuming the state and temporal claims of the Roman pontiff.419 Between three persons so different in their
situation and character, a private league was concluded: a
shadow of authority was restored to the senate; and the people was tempted by the name of freedom. By this powerful
confederacy, the great domestic was assaulted at first with
clandestine, at length with open, arms. His prerogatives were
disputed; his opinions slighted; his friends persecuted; and
his safety was threatened both in the camp and city. In his
absence on the public service, he was accused of treason; proscribed as an enemy of the church and state; and delivered
with all his adherents to the sword of justice, the vengeance
of the people, and the power of the devil; his fortunes were
confiscated; his aged mother was cast into prison;420 all his
past services were buried in oblivion; and he was driven by
injustice to perpetrate the crime of which he was accused.421
From the review of his preceding conduct, Cantacuzene ap419 He assumes the royal privilege of red shoes or buskins; placed on his head
a mitre of silk and gold; subscribed his epistles with hyacinth or green ink, and
claimed for the new, whatever Constantine had given to the ancient, Rome,
(Cantacuzen l iii c 36 Nic Gregoras, l xiv c 3).
420 She died there through persecution and neglect–M.
421 Nic Gregoras (l xii c 5) confesses the innocence and virtues of Cantacuzenus, the guilt and flagitious vices of Apocaucus; nor does he dissemble
the motive of his personal and religious enmity to the former; nun de dia kakian
allwn, aitioV o praotatoV thV tvn olwn edoxaV? eioai jqoraV Note: The alloi
were the religious enemies and persecutors of Nicephorus–M.
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PART I
pears to have been guiltless of any treasonable designs; and
the only suspicion of his innocence must arise from the vehemence of his protestations, and the sublime purity which he
ascribes to his own virtue. While the empress and the patriarch still affected the appearances of harmony, he repeatedly
solicited the permission of retiring to a private, and even a
monastic, life. After he had been declared a public enemy, it
was his fervent wish to throw himself at the feet of the young
emperor, and to receive without a murmur the stroke of the
executioner: it was not without reluctance that he listened
to the voice of reason, which inculcated the sacred duty of
saving his family and friends, and proved that he could only
save them by drawing the sword and assuming the Imperial
title.
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Part II
the strong city of Demotica, his peculiar domain, the emIbuskins:
peror John Cantacuzenus was invested with the purple
his right leg was clothed by his noble kinsmen, the
N
left by the Latin chiefs, on whom he conferred the order of
knighthood. But even in this act of revolt, he was still studious of loyalty; and the titles of John Palæologus and Anne
of Savoy were proclaimed before his own name and that of
his wife Irene. Such vain ceremony is a thin disguise of rebellion, nor are there perhaps any personal wrongs that can
authorize a subject to take arms against his sovereign: but the
want of preparation and success may confirm the assurance
of the usurper, that this decisive step was the effect of necessity rather than of choice. Constantinople adhered to the
young emperor; the king of Bulgaria was invited to the relief
of Adrianople: the principal cities of Thrace and Macedonia,
after some hesitation, renounced their obedience to the great
domestic; and the leaders of the troops and provinces were
induced, by their private interest, to prefer the loose dominion of a woman and a priest.422 The army of Cantacuzene, in
sixteen divisions, was stationed on the banks of the Melas to
tempt or to intimidate the capital: it was dispersed by treachery or fear; and the officers, more especially the mercenary
Latins, accepted the bribes, and embraced the service, of the
Byzantine court. After this loss, the rebel emperor (he fluctuated between the two characters) took the road of Thessalonica with a chosen remnant; but he failed in his enterprise
on that important place; and he was closely pursued by the
great duke, his enemy Apocaucus, at the head of a superior
power by sea and land. Driven from the coast, in his march,
or rather flight, into the mountains of Servia, Cantacuzene as422 Cantacuzene asserts, that in all the cities, the populace were on the side of
the emperor, the aristocracy on his The populace took the opportunity of rising
and plundering the wealthy as Cantacuzenites, vol iii c 29 Ages of common
oppression and ruin had not extinguished these republican factions–M.
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sembled his troops to scrutinize those who were worthy and
willing to accompany his broken fortunes. A base majority
bowed and retired; and his trusty band was diminished to
two thousand, and at last to five hundred, volunteers. The
cral,423 or despot of the Servians received him with general
hospitality; but the ally was insensibly degraded to a suppliant, a hostage, a captive; and in this miserable dependence,
he waited at the door of the Barbarian, who could dispose
of the life and liberty of a Roman emperor. The most tempting offers could not persuade the cral to violate his trust; but
he soon inclined to the stronger side; and his friend was dismissed without injury to a new vicissitude of hopes and perils. Near six years the flame of discord burnt with various
success and unabated rage: the cities were distracted by the
faction of the nobles and the plebeians; the Cantacuzeni and
Palæologi: and the Bulgarians, the Servians, and the Turks,
were invoked on both sides as the instruments of private ambition and the common ruin. The regent deplored the calamities, of which he was the author and victim: and his own experience might dictate a just and lively remark on the different nature of foreign and civil war. “The former,” said he, “is
the external warmth of summer, always tolerable, and often
beneficial; the latter is the deadly heat of a fever, which consumes without a remedy the vitals of the constitution.”424
The introduction of barbarians and savages into the contests of civilized nations, is a measure pregnant with shame
and mischief; which the interest of the moment may compel,
423 The princes of Servia (Ducange, Famil Dalmaticæ, &c, c 2, 3, 4, 9) were
styled Despots in Greek, and Cral in their native idiom, (Ducange, Gloss Græc
p 751) That title, the equivalent of king, appears to be of Sclavonic origin, from
whence it has been borrowed by the Hungarians, the modern Greeks, and
even by the Turks, (Leunclavius, Pandect Turc p 422,) who reserve the name
of Padishah for the emperor To obtain the latter instead of the former is the
ambition of the French at Constantinople, (Aversissement à l’Histoire de Timur
Bec, p 39).
424 Nic Gregoras, l xii c 14 It is surprising that Cantacuzene has not inserted
this just and lively image in his own writings.
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but which is reprobated by the best principles of humanity
and reason. It is the practice of both sides to accuse their enemies of the guilt of the first alliances; and those who fail in
their negotiations are loudest in their censure of the example
which they envy and would gladly imitate. The Turks of Asia
were less barbarous perhaps than the shepherds of Bulgaria
and Servia; but their religion rendered them implacable foes
of Rome and Christianity. To acquire the friendship of their
emirs, the two factions vied with each other in baseness and
profusion: the dexterity of Cantacuzene obtained the preference: but the succor and victory were dearly purchased by
the marriage of his daughter with an infidel, the captivity of
many thousand Christians, and the passage of the Ottomans
into Europe, the last and fatal stroke in the fall of the Roman
empire. The inclining scale was decided in his favor by the
death of Apocaucus, the just though singular retribution of
his crimes. A crowd of nobles or plebeians, whom he feared
or hated, had been seized by his orders in the capital and the
provinces; and the old palace of Constantine was assigned
as the place of their confinement. Some alterations in raising
the walls, and narrowing the cells, had been ingeniously contrived to prevent their escape, and aggravate their misery;
and the work was incessantly pressed by the daily visits of
the tyrant. His guards watched at the gate, and as he stood in
the inner court to overlook the architects, without fear or suspicion, he was assaulted and laid breathless on the ground,
by two425 resolute prisoners of the Palæologian race,426 who
were armed with sticks, and animated by despair. On the rumor of revenge and liberty, the captive multitude broke their
fetters, fortified their prison, and exposed from the battlements the tyrant’s head, presuming on the favor of the people and the clemency of the empress. Anne of Savoy might
425 Nicephorus
says four, p734.
two avengers were both Palæologi, who might resent, with royal indignation, the shame of their chains The tragedy of Apocaucus may deserve a
peculiar reference to Cantacuzene (l iii c 86) and Nic Gregoras, (l xiv c 10).
426 The
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PART II
rejoice in the fall of a haughty and ambitious minister, but
while she delayed to resolve or to act, the populace, more especially the mariners, were excited by the widow of the great
duke to a sedition, an assault, and a massacre. The prisoners
(of whom the far greater part were guiltless or inglorious of
the deed) escaped to a neighboring church: they were slaughtered at the foot of the altar; and in his death the monster was
not less bloody and venomous than in his life. Yet his talents
alone upheld the cause of the young emperor; and his surviving associates, suspicious of each other, abandoned the conduct of the war, and rejected the fairest terms of accommodation. In the beginning of the dispute, the empress felt, and
complained, that she was deceived by the enemies of Cantacuzene: the patriarch was employed to preach against the
forgiveness of injuries; and her promise of immortal hatred
was sealed by an oath, under the penalty of excommunication.427 But Anne soon learned to hate without a teacher: she
beheld the misfortunes of the empire with the indifference of
a stranger: her jealousy was exasperated by the competition
of a rival empress; and on the first symptoms of a more yielding temper, she threatened the patriarch to convene a synod,
and degrade him from his office. Their incapacity and discord would have afforded the most decisive advantage; but
the civil war was protracted by the weakness of both parties; and the moderation of Cantacuzene has not escaped the
reproach of timidity and indolence. He successively recovered the provinces and cities; and the realm of his pupil was
measured by the walls of Constantinople; but the metropolis
alone counterbalanced the rest of the empire; nor could he attempt that important conquest till he had secured in his favor
the public voice and a private correspondence. An Italian, of
427 Cantacuzene accuses the patriarch, and spares the empress, the mother of
his sovereign, (l iii 33, 34,) against whom Nic Gregoras expresses a particular
animosity, (l xiv 10, 11, xv 5) It is true that they do not speak exactly of the same
time.
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the name of Facciolati,428 had succeeded to the office of great
duke: the ships, the guards, and the golden gate, were subject to his command; but his humble ambition was bribed to
become the instrument of treachery; and the revolution was
accomplished without danger or bloodshed. Destitute of the
powers of resistance, or the hope of relief, the inflexible Anne
would have still defended the palace, and have smiled to behold the capital in flames, rather than in the possession of a
rival. She yielded to the prayers of her friends and enemies;
and the treaty was dictated by the conqueror, who professed
a loyal and zealous attachment to the son of his benefactor.
The marriage of his daughter with John Palæologus was at
length consummated: the hereditary right of the pupil was
acknowledged; but the sole administration during ten years
was vested in the guardian. Two emperors and three empresses were seated on the Byzantine throne; and a general
amnesty quieted the apprehensions, and confirmed the property, of the most guilty subjects. The festival of the coronation
and nuptials was celebrated with the appearances of concord
and magnificence, and both were equally fallacious. During
the late troubles, the treasures of the state, and even the furniture of the palace, had been alienated or embezzled; the royal
banquet was served in pewter or earthenware; and such was
the proud poverty of the times, that the absence of gold and
jewels was supplied by the paltry artifices of glass and giltleather.429
I hasten to conclude the personal history of John Cantacuzene.430 He triumphed and reigned; but his reign and
triumph were clouded by the discontent of his own and
428 The traitor and treason are revealed by Nic Gregoras, (l xv c 8;) but the
name is more discreetly suppressed by his great accomplice, (Cantacuzen l iii c
99).
429 Nic Greg l xv 11 There were, however, some true pearls, but very thinly
sprinkled The rest of the stones had only pantodaphn croian proV to diaugeV.
430 From his return to Constantinople, Cantacuzene continues his history and
that of the empire, one year beyond the abdication of his son Matthew, AD
1357, (l iv c l–50, p 705–911) Nicephorus Gregoras ends with the synod of Con-
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PART II
the adverse faction. His followers might style the general
amnesty an act of pardon for his enemies, and of oblivion
for his friends:431 in his cause their estates had been forfeited or plundered; and as they wandered naked and hungry through the streets, they cursed the selfish generosity of
a leader, who, on the throne of the empire, might relinquish
without merit his private inheritance. The adherents of the
empress blushed to hold their lives and fortunes by the precarious favor of a usurper; and the thirst of revenge was concealed by a tender concern for the succession, and even the
safety, of her son. They were justly alarmed by a petition of
the friends of Cantacuzene, that they might be released from
their oath of allegiance to the Palæologi, and intrusted with
the defence of some cautionary towns; a measure supported
with argument and eloquence; and which was rejected (says
the Imperial historian) “by my sublime, and almost incredible
virtue.” His repose was disturbed by the sound of plots and
seditions; and he trembled lest the lawful prince should be
stolen away by some foreign or domestic enemy, who would
inscribe his name and his wrongs in the banners of rebellion. As the son of Andronicus advanced in the years of manhood, he began to feel and to act for himself; and his rising
ambition was rather stimulated than checked by the imitation of his father’s vices. If we may trust his own professions, Cantacuzene labored with honest industry to correct
these sordid and sensual appetites, and to raise the mind of
the young prince to a level with his fortune. In the Servian
expedition, the two emperors showed themselves in cordial
harmony to the troops and provinces; and the younger colleague was initiated by the elder in the mysteries of war and
stantinople, in the year 1351, (l xxii c 3, p 660; the rest, to the conclusion of the
xxivth book, p 717, is all controversy;) and his fourteen last books are still MSS
in the king of France’s library.
431 The emperor (Cantacuzen l iv c 1) represents his own virtues, and Nic
Gregoras (l xv c 11) the complaints of his friends, who suffered by its effects I
have lent them the words of our poor cavaliers after the Restoration.
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government. After the conclusion of the peace, Palæologus
was left at Thessalonica, a royal residence, and a frontier station, to secure by his absence the peace of Constantinople,
and to withdraw his youth from the temptations of a luxurious capital. But the distance weakened the powers of control,
and the son of Andronicus was surrounded with artful or unthinking companions, who taught him to hate his guardian,
to deplore his exile, and to vindicate his rights. A private
treaty with the cral or despot of Servia was soon followed
by an open revolt; and Cantacuzene, on the throne of the elder Andronicus, defended the cause of age and prerogative,
which in his youth he had so vigorously attacked. At his
request the empress-mother undertook the voyage of Thessalonica, and the office of mediation: she returned without
success; and unless Anne of Savoy was instructed by adversity, we may doubt the sincerity, or at least the fervor, of her
zeal. While the regent grasped the sceptre with a firm and
vigorous hand, she had been instructed to declare, that the
ten years of his legal administration would soon elapse; and
that, after a full trial of the vanity of the world, the emperor
Cantacuzene sighed for the repose of a cloister, and was ambitious only of a heavenly crown. Had these sentiments been
genuine, his voluntary abdication would have restored the
peace of the empire, and his conscience would have been relieved by an act of justice. Palæologus alone was responsible
for his future government; and whatever might be his vices,
they were surely less formidable than the calamities of a civil
war, in which the Barbarians and infidels were again invited
to assist the Greeks in their mutual destruction. By the arms
of the Turks, who now struck a deep and everlasting root in
Europe, Cantacuzene prevailed in the third contest in which
he had been involved; and the young emperor, driven from
the sea and land, was compelled to take shelter among the
Latins of the Isle of Tenedos. His insolence and obstinacy
provoked the victor to a step which must render the quarrel
irreconcilable; and the association of his son Matthew, whom
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PART II
he invested with the purple, established the succession in the
family of the Cantacuzeni. But Constantinople was still attached to the blood of her ancient princes; and this last injury
accelerated the restoration of the rightful heir. A noble Genoese espoused the cause of Palæologus, obtained a promise
of his sister, and achieved the revolution with two galleys
and two thousand five hundred auxiliaries. Under the pretence of distress, they were admitted into the lesser port; a
gate was opened, and the Latin shout of, “Long life and victory to the emperor, John Palæologus!” was answered by a
general rising in his favor. A numerous and loyal party yet
adhered to the standard of Cantacuzene: but he asserts in his
history (does he hope for belief?) that his tender conscience
rejected the assurance of conquest; that, in free obedience to
the voice of religion and philosophy, he descended from the
throne and embraced with pleasure the monastic habit and
profession.432 So soon as he ceased to be a prince, his successor was not unwilling that he should be a saint: the remainder of his life was devoted to piety and learning; in the
cells of Constantinople and Mount Athos, the monk Joasaph
was respected as the temporal and spiritual father of the emperor; and if he issued from his retreat, it was as the minister
of peace, to subdue the obstinacy, and solicit the pardon, of
his rebellious son.433
Yet in the cloister, the mind of Cantacuzene was still exercised by theological war. He sharpened a controversial pen
432 The awkward apology of Cantacuzene, (l iv c 39–42,) who relates, with
visible confusion, his own downfall, may be supplied by the less accurate, but
more honest, narratives of Matthew Villani (l iv c 46, in the Script Rerum Ital
tom xiv p 268) and Ducas, (c 10, 11).
433 Cantacuzene, in the year 1375, was honored with a letter from the pope,
(Fleury, Hist Ecclés tom xx p 250) His death is placed by a respectable authority
on the 20th of November, 1411, (Ducange, Fam Byzant p 260) But if he were
of the age of his companion Andronicus the Younger, he must have lived 116
years; a rare instance of longevity, which in so illustrious a person would have
attracted universal notice.
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against the Jews and Mahometans;434 and in every state he
defended with equal zeal the divine light of Mount Thabor,
a memorable question which consummates the religious follies of the Greeks. The fakirs of India,435 and the monks of
the Oriental church, were alike persuaded, that in the total
abstraction of the faculties of the mind and body, the purer
spirit may ascend to the enjoyment and vision of the Deity. The opinion and practice of the monasteries of Mount
Athos436 will be best represented in the words of an abbot,
who flourished in the eleventh century. “When thou art alone
in thy cell,” says the ascetic teacher, “shut thy door, and seat
thyself in a corner: raise thy mind above all things vain and
transitory; recline thy beard and chin on thy breast; turn thy
eyes and thy thoughts toward the middle of thy belly, the region of the navel; and search the place of the heart, the seat of
the soul. At first, all will be dark and comfortless; but if you
persevere day and night, you will feel an ineffable joy; and
no sooner has the soul discovered the place of the heart, than
it is involved in a mystic and ethereal light.” This light, the
production of a distempered fancy, the creature of an empty
stomach and an empty brain, was adored by the Quietists as
the pure and perfect essence of God himself; and as long as
the folly was confined to Mount Athos, the simple solitaries
were not inquisitive how the divine essence could be a material substance, or how an immaterial substance could be perceived by the eyes of the body. But in the reign of the younger
434 His four discourses, or books, were printed at Basil, 1543, (Fabric Bibliot
Græc tom vi p 473) He composed them to satisfy a proselyte who was assaulted
with letters from his friends of Ispahan Cantacuzene had read the Koran; but
I understand from Maracci that he adopts the vulgar prejudices and fables
against Mahomet and his religion.
435 See the Voyage de Bernier, tom i p 127.
436 Mosheim, Institut Hist Ecclés p 522, 523 Fleury, Hist Ecclés tom xx p 22, 24,
107–114, &c The former unfolds the causes with the judgment of a philosopher,
the latter transcribes and transcribes and translates with the prejudices of a
Catholic priest.
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Andronicus, these monasteries were visited by Barlaam,437
a Calabrian monk, who was equally skilled in philosophy
and theology; who possessed the language of the Greeks and
Latins; and whose versatile genius could maintain their opposite creeds, according to the interest of the moment. The
indiscretion of an ascetic revealed to the curious traveller the
secrets of mental prayer and Barlaam embraced the opportunity of ridiculing the Quietists, who placed the soul in the
navel; of accusing the monks of Mount Athos of heresy and
blasphemy. His attack compelled the more learned to renounce or dissemble the simple devotion of their brethren;
and Gregory Palamas introduced a scholastic distinction between the essence and operation of God. His inaccessible
essence dwells in the midst of an uncreated and eternal light;
and this beatific vision of the saints had been manifested
to the disciples on Mount Thabor, in the transfiguration of
Christ. Yet this distinction could not escape the reproach of
polytheism; the eternity of the light of Thabor was fiercely
denied; and Barlaam still charged the Palamites with holding two eternal substances, a visible and an invisible God.
From the rage of the monks of Mount Athos, who threatened
his life, the Calabrian retired to Constantinople, where his
smooth and specious manners introduced him to the favor
of the great domestic and the emperor. The court and the
city were involved in this theological dispute, which flamed
amidst the civil war; but the doctrine of Barlaam was disgraced by his flight and apostasy: the Palamites triumphed;
and their adversary, the patriarch John of Apri, was deposed
by the consent of the adverse factions of the state. In the
character of emperor and theologian, Cantacuzene presided
in the synod of the Greek church, which established, as an
article of faith, the uncreated light of Mount Thabor; and,
437 Basnage (in Canisii Antiq Lectiones, tom iv p 363–368) has investigated the
character and story of Barlaam The duplicity of his opinions had inspired some
doubts of the identity of his person See likewise Fabricius, (Bibliot Græc tom x
p 427–432).
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PART II
after so many insults, the reason of mankind was slightly
wounded by the addition of a single absurdity. Many rolls
of paper or parchment have been blotted; and the impenitent
sectaries, who refused to subscribe the orthodox creed, were
deprived of the honors of Christian burial; but in the next
age the question was forgotten; nor can I learn that the axe or
the fagot were employed for the extirpation of the Barlaamite
heresy.438
For the conclusion of this chapter, I have reserved the Genoese war, which shook the throne of Cantacuzene, and betrayed the debility of the Greek empire. The Genoese, who,
after the recovery of Constantinople, were seated in the suburb of Pera or Galata, received that honorable fief from the
bounty of the emperor. They were indulged in the use of
their laws and magistrates; but they submitted to the duties
of vassals and subjects; the forcible word of liegemen439 was
borrowed from the Latin jurisprudence; and their podesta, or
chief, before he entered on his office, saluted the emperor
with loyal acclamations and vows of fidelity. Genoa sealed a
firm alliance with the Greeks; and, in case of a defensive war,
a supply of fifty empty galleys and a succor of fifty galleys,
completely armed and manned, was promised by the republic to the empire. In the revival of a naval force, it was the
aim of Michael Palæologus to deliver himself from a foreign
aid; and his vigorous government contained the Genoese of
Galata within those limits which the insolence of wealth and
freedom provoked them to exceed. A sailor threatened that
438 See Cantacuzene (l ii c 39, 40, l iv c 3, 23, 24, 25) and Nic Gregoras, (l xi c
10, l xv 3, 7, &c,) whose last books, from the xixth to xxivth, are almost confined
to a subject so interesting to the authors Boivin, (in Vit Nic Gregoræ,) from the
unpublished books, and Fabricius, (Bibliot Græc tom x p 462–473,) or rather
Montfaucon, from the MSS of the Coislin library, have added some facts and
documents.
439 Pachymer (l v c 10) very properly explains liziouV (ligios) by?lidiouV The
use of these words in the Greek and Latin of the feudal times may be amply
understood from the Glossaries of Ducange, (Græc p 811, 812 Latin tom iv p
109–111).
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PART II
they should soon be masters of Constantinople, and slew the
Greek who resented this national affront; and an armed vessel, after refusing to salute the palace, was guilty of some acts
of piracy in the Black Sea. Their countrymen threatened to
support their cause; but the long and open village of Galata
was instantly surrounded by the Imperial troops; till, in the
moment of the assault, the prostrate Genoese implored the
clemency of their sovereign. The defenceless situation which
secured their obedience exposed them to the attack of their
Venetian rivals, who, in the reign of the elder Andronicus,
presumed to violate the majesty of the throne. On the approach of their fleets, the Genoese, with their families and
effects, retired into the city: their empty habitations were reduced to ashes; and the feeble prince, who had viewed the
destruction of his suburb, expressed his resentment, not by
arms, but by ambassadors. This misfortune, however, was
advantageous to the Genoese, who obtained, and imperceptibly abused, the dangerous license of surrounding Galata with
a strong wall; of introducing into the ditch the waters of the
sea; of erecting lofty turrets; and of mounting a train of military engines on the rampart. The narrow bounds in which
they had been circumscribed were insufficient for the growing colony; each day they acquired some addition of landed
property; and the adjacent hills were covered with their villas
and castles, which they joined and protected by new fortifications.440 The navigation and trade of the Euxine was the patrimony of the Greek emperors, who commanded the narrow
entrance, the gates, as it were, of that inland sea. In the reign
of Michael Palæologus, their prerogative was acknowledged
by the sultan of Egypt, who solicited and obtained the liberty
of sending an annual ship for the purchase of slaves in Circassia and the Lesser Tartary: a liberty pregnant with mischief to
440 The establishment and progress of the Genoese at Pera, or Galata, is described by Ducange (C P Christiana, l i p 68, 69) from the Byzantine historians,
Pachymer, (l ii c 35, l v 10, 30, l ix 15 l xii 6, 9,) Nicephorus Gregoras, (l v c 4, l vi
c 11, l ix c 5, l ix c 1, l xv c 1, 6,) and Cantacuzene, (l i c 12, l ii c 29, &c).
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the Christian cause; since these youths were transformed by
education and discipline into the formidable Mamalukes.441
From the colony of Pera, the Genoese engaged with superior
advantage in the lucrative trade of the Black Sea; and their industry supplied the Greeks with fish and corn; two articles of
food almost equally important to a superstitious people. The
spontaneous bounty of nature appears to have bestowed the
harvests of Ukraine, the produce of a rude and savage husbandry; and the endless exportation of salt fish and caviare is
annually renewed by the enormous sturgeons that are caught
at the mouth of the Don or Tanais, in their last station of the
rich mud and shallow water of the Mæotis.442 The waters
of the Oxus, the Caspian, the Volga, and the Don, opened
a rare and laborious passage for the gems and spices of India; and after three months’ march the caravans of Carizme
met the Italian vessels in the harbors of Crimæa.443 These
various branches of trade were monopolized by the diligence
and power of the Genoese. Their rivals of Venice and Pisa
were forcibly expelled; the natives were awed by the castles
and cities, which arose on the foundations of their humble
factories; and their principal establishment of Caffa444 was
besieged without effect by the Tartar powers. Destitute of
a navy, the Greeks were oppressed by these haughty mer441 Both Pachymer (l iii c 3, 4, 5) and Nic Greg (l iv c 7) understand and deplore the effects of this dangerous indulgence Bibars, sultan of Egypt, himself a
Tartar, but a devout Mussulman, obtained from the children of Zingis the permission to build a stately mosque in the capital of Crimea, (De Guignes, Hist
des Huns, tom iii p 343).
442 Chardin (Voyages en Perse, tom i p 48) was assured at Caffa, that these
fishes were sometimes twenty-four or twenty-six feet long, weighed eight or
nine hundred pounds, and yielded three or four quintals of caviare The corn of
the Bosphorus had supplied the Athenians in the time of Demosthenes.
443 De Guignes, Hist des Huns, tom iii p 343, 344 Viaggi di Ramusio, tom i fol
400 But this land or water carriage could only be practicable when Tartary was
united under a wise and powerful monarch.
444 Nic Gregoras (l xiii c 12) is judicious and well informed on the trade and
colonies of the Black Sea Chardin describes the present ruins of Caffa, where, in
forty days, he saw above 400 sail employed in the corn and fish trade, (Voyages
en Perse, tom i p 46–48).
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PART II
chants, who fed, or famished, Constantinople, according to
their interest. They proceeded to usurp the customs, the fishery, and even the toll, of the Bosphorus; and while they derived from these objects a revenue of two hundred thousand
pieces of gold, a remnant of thirty thousand was reluctantly
allowed to the emperor.445 The colony of Pera or Galata
acted, in peace and war, as an independent state; and, as it
will happen in distant settlements, the Genoese podesta too
often forgot that he was the servant of his own masters.
These usurpations were encouraged by the weakness of the
elder Andronicus, and by the civil wars that afflicted his age
and the minority of his grandson. The talents of Cantacuzene
were employed to the ruin, rather than the restoration, of the
empire; and after his domestic victory, he was condemned
to an ignominious trial, whether the Greeks or the Genoese
should reign in Constantinople. The merchants of Pera were
offended by his refusal of some contiguous land, some commanding heights, which they proposed to cover with new
fortifications; and in the absence of the emperor, who was
detained at Demotica by sickness, they ventured to brave the
debility of a female reign. A Byzantine vessel, which had
presumed to fish at the mouth of the harbor, was sunk by
these audacious strangers; the fishermen were murdered. Instead of suing for pardon, the Genoese demanded satisfaction; required, in a haughty strain, that the Greeks should
renounce the exercise of navigation; and encountered with
regular arms the first sallies of the popular indignation. They
instantly occupied the debatable land; and by the labor of a
whole people, of either sex and of every age, the wall was
raised, and the ditch was sunk, with incredible speed. At the
same time, they attacked and burnt two Byzantine galleys;
while the three others, the remainder of the Imperial navy, escaped from their hands: the habitations without the gates, or
along the shore, were pillaged and destroyed; and the care of
445 See
Nic Gregoras, l xvii c 1.
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PART II
the regent, of the empress Irene, was confined to the preservation of the city. The return of Cantacuzene dispelled the
public consternation: the emperor inclined to peaceful counsels; but he yielded to the obstinacy of his enemies, who rejected all reasonable terms, and to the ardor of his subjects,
who threatened, in the style of Scripture, to break them in
pieces like a potter’s vessel. Yet they reluctantly paid the
taxes, that he imposed for the construction of ships, and the
expenses of the war; and as the two nations were masters, the
one of the land, the other of the sea, Constantinople and Pera
were pressed by the evils of a mutual siege. The merchants
of the colony, who had believed that a few days would terminate the war, already murmured at their losses: the succors
from their mother-country were delayed by the factions of
Genoa; and the most cautious embraced the opportunity of a
Rhodian vessel to remove their families and effects from the
scene of hostility. In the spring, the Byzantine fleet, seven galleys and a train of smaller vessels, issued from the mouth of
the harbor, and steered in a single line along the shore of Pera;
unskilfully presenting their sides to the beaks of the adverse
squadron. The crews were composed of peasants and mechanics; nor was their ignorance compensated by the native
courage of Barbarians: the wind was strong, the waves were
rough; and no sooner did the Greeks perceive a distant and
inactive enemy, than they leaped headlong into the sea, from
a doubtful, to an inevitable peril. The troops that marched to
the attack of the lines of Pera were struck at the same moment
with a similar panic; and the Genoese were astonished, and
almost ashamed, at their double victory. Their triumphant
vessels, crowned with flowers, and dragging after them the
captive galleys, repeatedly passed and repassed before the
palace: the only virtue of the emperor was patience; and the
hope of revenge his sole consolation. Yet the distress of both
parties interposed a temporary agreement; and the shame of
the empire was disguised by a thin veil of dignity and power.
Summoning the chiefs of the colony, Cantacuzene affected to
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PART II
despise the trivial object of the debate; and, after a mild reproof, most liberally granted the lands, which had been previously resigned to the seeming custody of his officers.446
But the emperor was soon solicited to violate the treaty, and
to join his arms with the Venetians, the perpetual enemies of
Genoa and her colonies. While he compared the reasons of
peace and war, his moderation was provoked by a wanton
insult of the inhabitants of Pera, who discharged from their
rampart a large stone that fell in the midst of Constantinople.
On his just complaint, they coldly blamed the imprudence
of their engineer; but the next day the insult was repeated;
and they exulted in a second proof that the royal city was
not beyond the reach of their artillery. Cantacuzene instantly
signed his treaty with the Venetians; but the weight of the Roman empire was scarcely felt in the balance of these opulent
and powerful republics.447 From the Straits of Gibraltar to
the mouth of the Tanais, their fleets encountered each other
with various success; and a memorable battle was fought in
the narrow sea, under the walls of Constantinople. It would
not be an easy task to reconcile the accounts of the Greeks,
the Venetians, and the Genoese;448 and while I depend on
446 The events of this war are related by Cantacuzene (l iv c 11 with obscurity
and confusion, and by Nic Gregoras l xvii c 1–7) in a clear and honest narrative
The priest was less responsible than the prince for the defeat of the fleet.
447 The second war is darkly told by Cantacuzene, (l iv c 18, p 24, 25, 28–
32,) who wishes to disguise what he dares not deny I regret this part of Nic
Gregoras, which is still in MS at Paris * Note: This part of Nicephorus Gregoras
has not been printed in the new edition of the Byzantine Historians The editor
expresses a hope that it may be undertaken by Hase I should join in the regret
of Gibbon, if these books contain any historical information: if they are but a
continuation of the controversies which fill the last books in our present copies,
they may as well sleep their eternal sleep in MS as in print–M.
448 Muratori (Annali d’ Italia, tom xii p 144) refers to the most ancient Chronicles of Venice (Caresinus, the continuator of Andrew Dandulus, tom xii p 421,
422) and Genoa, (George Stella Annales Genuenses, tom xvii p 1091, 1092;) both
which I have diligently consulted in his great Collection of the Historians of
Italy.
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PART II
the narrative of an impartial historian,449 I shall borrow from
each nation the facts that redound to their own disgrace, and
the honor of their foes. The Venetians, with their allies the
Catalans, had the advantage of number; and their fleet, with
the poor addition of eight Byzantine galleys, amounted to
seventy-five sail: the Genoese did not exceed sixty-four; but
in those times their ships of war were distinguished by the
superiority of their size and strength. The names and families of their naval commanders, Pisani and Doria, are illustrious in the annals of their country; but the personal merit
of the former was eclipsed by the fame and abilities of his
rival. They engaged in tempestuous weather; and the tumultuary conflict was continued from the dawn to the extinction of light. The enemies of the Genoese applaud their
prowess; the friends of the Venetians are dissatisfied with
their behavior; but all parties agree in praising the skill and
boldness of the Catalans,450 who, with many wounds, sustained the brunt of the action. On the separation of the fleets,
the event might appear doubtful; but the thirteen Genoese
galleys, that had been sunk or taken, were compensated by a
double loss of the allies; of fourteen Venetians, ten Catalans,
and two Greeks;451 and even the grief of the conquerors expressed the assurance and habit of more decisive victories.
Pisani confessed his defeat, by retiring into a fortified harbor,
from whence, under the pretext of the orders of the senate,
he steered with a broken and flying squadron for the Isle of
Candia, and abandoned to his rivals the sovereignty of the
449 See the Chronicle of Matteo Villani of Florence, l ii c 59, p 145–147, c 74, 75,
p 156, 157, in Muratori’s Collection, tom xiv.
450 Cantacuzene praises their bravery, but imputes their losses to their ignorance of the seas: they suffered more by the breakers than by the enemy, vol iii
p 224–M.
451 Cantacuzene says that the Genoese lost twenty-eight ships with their
crews, autandroi; the Venetians and Catalans sixteen, the Imperials, none Cantacuzene accuses Pisani of cowardice, in not following up the victory, and destroying the Genoese But Pisani’s conduct, and indeed Cantacuzene’s account
of the battle, betray the superiority of the Genoese–M.
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sea. In a public epistle,452 addressed to the doge and senate, Petrarch employs his eloquence to reconcile the maritime
powers, the two luminaries of Italy. The orator celebrates the
valor and victory of the Genoese, the first of men in the exercise of naval war: he drops a tear on the misfortunes of
their Venetian brethren; but he exhorts them to pursue with
fire and sword the base and perfidious Greeks; to purge the
metropolis of the East from the heresy with which it was infected. Deserted by their friends, the Greeks were incapable
of resistance; and three months after the battle, the emperor
Cantacuzene solicited and subscribed a treaty, which forever
banished the Venetians and Catalans, and granted to the Genoese a monopoly of trade, and almost a right of dominion.
The Roman empire (I smile in transcribing the name) might
soon have sunk into a province of Genoa, if the ambition of
the republic had not been checked by the ruin of her freedom and naval power. A long contest of one hundred and
thirty years was determined by the triumph of Venice; and
the factions of the Genoese compelled them to seek for domestic peace under the protection of a foreign lord, the duke
of Milan, or the French king. Yet the spirit of commerce survived that of conquest; and the colony of Pera still awed the
capital and navigated the Euxine, till it was involved by the
Turks in the final servitude of Constantinople itself.
452 The Abbé de Sade (Mémoires sur la Vie de Petrarque, tom iii p 257–263)
translates this letter, which he copied from a MS in the king of France’s library
Though a servant of the duke of Milan, Petrarch pours forth his astonishment
and grief at the defeat and despair of the Genoese in the following year, (p
323–332).
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Chapter LXIV
M OGULS , O TTOMAN T URKS
Part I
Conquests Of Zingis Khan And The Moguls From
China To Poland.–
Escape Of Constantinople And The Greeks.–
Origin Of The Ottoman Turks In Bithynia.–
Reigns And Victories Of Othman, Orchan,
Amurath The First, And Bajazet The First.–
Foundation And Progress Of The Turkish Monarchy In Asia And Europe.–
Danger Of Constantinople And The Greek Empire.
the petty quarrels of a city and her suburbs, from the
F
cowardice and discord of the falling Greeks, I shall now
ascend to the victorious Turks; whose domestic slavery was
ROM
ennobled by martial discipline, religious enthusiasm, and the
energy of the national character. The rise and progress of the
Ottomans, the present sovereigns of Constantinople, are connected with the most important scenes of modern history; but
they are founded on a previous knowledge of the great eruption of the Moguls453 and Tartars; whose rapid conquests
may be compared with the primitive convulsions of nature,
which have agitated and altered the surface of the globe. I
have long since asserted my claim to introduce the nations,
the immediate or remote authors of the fall of the Roman empire; nor can I refuse myself to those events, which, from their
uncommon magnitude, will interest a philosophic mind in
the history of blood.454
453 Mongol seems to approach the nearest to the proper name of this race
The Chinese call them Mong-kou; the Mondchoux, their neighbors, Monggo
or Monggou They called themselves also Beda This fact seems to have been
proved by M Schmidt against the French Orientalists See De Brosset Note on
Le Beau, tom xxii p 402.
454 The reader is invited to review chapters xxii to xxvi, and xxiii to xxxviii,
the manners of pastoral nations, the conquests of Attila and the Huns, which
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PART I
From the spacious highlands between China, Siberia, and
the Caspian Sea, the tide of emigration and war has repeatedly been poured. These ancient seats of the Huns and Turks
were occupied in the twelfth century by many pastoral tribes,
of the same descent and similar manners, which were united
and led to conquest by the formidable Zingis.455 In his ascent to greatness, that Barbarian (whose private appellation
was Temugin) had trampled on the necks of his equals. His
birth was noble; but it was the pride of victory, that the prince
or people deduced his seventh ancestor from the immaculate
conception of a virgin. His father had reigned over thirteen
hordes, which composed about thirty or forty thousand families: above two thirds refused to pay tithes or obedience to
his infant son; and at the age of thirteen, Temugin fought a
battle against his rebellious subjects. The future conqueror
of Asia was reduced to fly and to obey; but he rose superior
to his fortune, and in his fortieth year he had established his
fame and dominion over the circumjacent tribes. In a state
of society, in which policy is rude and valor is universal, the
ascendant of one man must be founded on his power and
resolution to punish his enemies and recompense his friends.
His first military league was ratified by the simple rites of
sacrificing a horse and tasting of a running stream: Temugin
pledged himself to divide with his followers the sweets and
the bitters of life; and when he had shared among them his
horses and apparel, he was rich in their gratitude and his own
hopes. After his first victory, he placed seventy caldrons on
the fire, and seventy of the most guilty rebels were cast headlong into the boiling water. The sphere of his attraction was
continually enlarged by the ruin of the proud and the submission of the prudent; and the boldest chieftains might tremble,
were composed at a time when I entertained the wish, rather than the hope, of
concluding my history.
455 On the traditions of the early life of Zingis, see D’Ohson, Hist des Mongols;
Histoire des Mongols, Paris, 1824 Schmidt, Geschichte des Ost-Mongolen, p 66,
&c, and Notes–M.
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PART I
when they beheld, enchased in silver, the skull of the khan of
Keraites;456 who, under the name of Prester John, had corresponded with the Roman pontiff and the princes of Europe.
The ambition of Temugin condescended to employ the arts
of superstition; and it was from a naked prophet, who could
ascend to heaven on a white horse, that he accepted the title
of Zingis,457 the most great; and a divine right to the conquest
and dominion of the earth. In a general couroultai, or diet,
he was seated on a felt, which was long afterwards revered
as a relic, and solemnly proclaimed great khan, or emperor
of the Moguls458 and Tartars.459 Of these kindred, though rival, names, the former had given birth to the imperial race;
and the latter has been extended by accident or error over the
spacious wilderness of the north.
456 The khans of the Keraites were most probably incapable of reading the
pompous epistles composed in their name by the Nestorian missionaries, who
endowed them with the fabulous wonders of an Indian kingdom Perhaps these
Tartars (the Presbyter or Priest John) had submitted to the rites of baptism and
ordination, (Asseman, Bibliot Orient tom iii p ii p 487–503).
457 Since the history and tragedy of Voltaire, Gengis, at least in French, seems
to be the more fashionable spelling; but Abulghazi Khan must have known the
true name of his ancestor His etymology appears just: Zin, in the Mogul tongue,
signifies great, and gis is the superlative termination, (Hist Généalogique des
Tatars, part iii p 194, 195) From the same idea of magnitude, the appellation of
Zingis is bestowed on the ocean.
458 The name of Moguls has prevailed among the Orientals, and still adheres
to the titular sovereign, the Great Mogul of Hindastan * Note: M Remusat (sur
les Langues Tartares, p 233) justly observes, that Timour was a Turk, not a
Mogul, and, p 242, that probably there was not Mogul in the army of Baber,
who established the Indian throne of the “Great Mogul”–M.
459 The Tartars (more properly Tatars) were descended from Tatar Khan, the
brother of Mogul Khan, (see Abulghazi, part i and ii,) and once formed a horde
of 70,000 families on the borders of Kitay, (p 103–112) In the great invasion of
Europe (AD 1238) they seem to have led the vanguard; and the similitude of
the name of Tartarei, recommended that of Tartars to the Latins, (Matt Paris, p
398, &c) * Note: This relationship, according to M Klaproth, is fabulous, and
invented by the Mahometan writers, who, from religious zeal, endeavored to
connect the traditions of the nomads of Central Asia with those of the Old Testament, as preserved in the Koran There is no trace of it in the Chinese writers
Tabl de l’Asie, p 156–M.
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The code of laws which Zingis dictated to his subjects was
adapted to the preservation of a domestic peace, and the exercise of foreign hostility. The punishment of death was inflicted on the crimes of adultery, murder, perjury, and the
capital thefts of a horse or ox; and the fiercest of men were
mild and just in their intercourse with each other. The future
election of the great khan was vested in the princes of his
family and the heads of the tribes; and the regulations of the
chase were essential to the pleasures and plenty of a Tartar
camp. The victorious nation was held sacred from all servile
labors, which were abandoned to slaves and strangers; and
every labor was servile except the profession of arms. The
service and discipline of the troops, who were armed with
bows, cimeters, and iron maces, and divided by hundreds,
thousands, and ten thousands, were the institutions of a veteran commander. Each officer and soldier was made responsible, under pain of death, for the safety and honor of his
companions; and the spirit of conquest breathed in the law,
that peace should never be granted unless to a vanquished
and suppliant enemy. But it is the religion of Zingis that best
deserves our wonder and applause.460 The Catholic inquisi460 Before his armies entered Thibet, he sent an embassy to BogdosottnamDsimmo, a Lama high priest, with a letter to this effect: “I have chosen thee
as high priest for myself and my empire Repair then to me, and promote the
present and future happiness of man: I will be thy supporter and protector:
let us establish a system of religion, and unite it with the monarchy,” &c The
high priest accepted the invitation; and the Mongol history literally terms this
step the period of the first respect for religion; because the monarch, by his public
profession, made it the religion of the state Klaproth “Travels in Caucasus,” ch
7, Eng Trans p 92 Neither Dshingis nor his son and successor Oegodah had,
on account of their continual wars, much leisure for the propagation of the
religion of the Lama By religion they understand a distinct, independent, sacred
moral code, which has but one origin, one source, and one object This notion
they universally propagate, and even believe that the brutes, and all created
beings, have a religion adapted to their sphere of action The different forms
of the various religions they ascribe to the difference of individuals, nations,
and legislators Never do you hear of their inveighing against any creed, even
against the obviously absurd Schaman paganism, or of their persecuting others
on that account They themselves, on the other hand, endure every hardship,
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tors of Europe, who defended nonsense by cruelty, might
have been confounded by the example of a Barbarian, who
anticipated the lessons of philosophy,461 and established by
his laws a system of pure theism and perfect toleration. His
first and only article of faith was the existence of one God,
the Author of all good; who fills by his presence the heavens and earth, which he has created by his power. The Tartars and Moguls were addicted to the idols of their peculiar
tribes; and many of them had been converted by the foreign missionaries to the religions of Moses, of Mahomet, and
of Christ. These various systems in freedom and concord
were taught and practised within the precincts of the same
camp; and the Bonze, the Imam, the Rabbi, the Nestorian,
and the Latin priest, enjoyed the same honorable exemption
from service and tribute: in the mosque of Bochara, the insolent victor might trample the Koran under his horse’s feet,
but the calm legislator respected the prophets and pontiffs of
the most hostile sects. The reason of Zingis was not informed
by books: the khan could neither read nor write; and, except
the tribe of the Igours, the greatest part of the Moguls and
Tartars were as illiterate as their sovereign.462 The memory
of their exploits was preserved by tradition: sixty-eight years
after the death of Zingis, these traditions were collected and
transcribed;463 the brevity of their domestic annals may be
and even persecutions, with perfect resignation, and indulgently excuse the
follies of others, nay, consider them as a motive for increased ardor in prayer,
ch ix p 109–M.
461 A singular conformity may be found between the religious laws of Zingis
Khan and of Mr Locke, (Constitutions of Carolina, in his works, vol iv p 535,
4to edition, 1777).
462 See the notice on Tha-tha-toung-o, the Ouogour minister of Tchingis, in
Abel Remusat’s 2d series of Recherch Asiat vol ii p 61 He taught the son of
Tchingis to write: “He was the instructor of the Moguls in writing, of which
they were before ignorant;” and hence the application of the Ouigour characters
to the Mogul language cannot be placed earlier than the year 1204 or 1205, nor
so late as the time of Pà-sse-pa, who lived under Khubilai A new alphabet,
approaching to that of Thibet, was introduced under Khubilai–M.
463 In the year 1294, by the command of Cazan, khan of Persia, the fourth
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supplied by the Chinese,464 Persians,465 Armenians,466 Syr-
in descent from Zingis From these traditions, his vizier Fadlallah composed
a Mogul history in the Persian language, which has been used by Petit de la
Croix, (Hist de Genghizcan, p 537–539) The Histoire Généalogique des Tatars
(à Leyde, 1726, in 12mo, 2 tomes) was translated by the Swedish prisoners in
Siberia from the Mogul MS of Abulgasi Bahadur Khan, a descendant of Zingis,
who reigned over the Usbeks of Charasm, or Carizme, (AD 1644–1663) He is of
most value and credit for the names, pedigrees, and manners of his nation Of
his nine parts, the ist descends from Adam to Mogul Khan; the iid, from Mogul
to Zingis; the iiid is the life of Zingis; the ivth, vth, vith, and viith, the general
history of his four sons and their posterity; the viiith and ixth, the particular
history of the descendants of Sheibani Khan, who reigned in Maurenahar and
Charasm.
464 Histoire de Gentchiscan, et de toute la Dinastie des Mongous ses Successeurs, Conquerans de la Chine; tirée de l’Histoire de la Chine par le R P
Gaubil, de la Société de Jesus, Missionaire à Peking; à Paris, 1739, in 4to This
translation is stamped with the Chinese character of domestic accuracy and
foreign ignorance.
465 See the Histoire du Grand Genghizcan, premier Empereur des Moguls et
Tartares, par M Petit de la Croix, à Paris, 1710, in 12mo; a work of ten years’ labor, chiefly drawn from the Persian writers, among whom Nisavi, the secretary
of Sultan Gelaleddin, has the merit and prejudices of a contemporary A slight
air of romance is the fault of the originals, or the compiler See likewise the articles of Genghizcan, Mohammed, Gelaleddin, &c, in the Bibliothèque Orientale of
D’Herbelot * Note: The preface to the Hist des Mongols, (Paris, 1824) gives a
catalogue of the Arabic and Persian authorities– M.
466 Haithonus, or Aithonus, an Armenian prince, and afterwards a monk of
Premontré, (Fabric, Bibliot Lat Medii Ævi, tom i p 34,) dictated in the French
language, his book de Tartaris, his old fellow-soldiers It was immediately translated into Latin, and is inserted in the Novus Orbis of Simon Grynæus, (Basil,
1555, in folio) * Note: A précis at the end of the new edition of Le Beau, Hist
des Empereurs, vol xvii, by M Brosset, gives large extracts from the accounts of
the Armenian historians relating to the Mogul conquests–M.
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ians,467 Arabians,468 Greeks,469 Russians,470 Poles,471 Hungarians,472 and Latins;473 and each nation will deserve credit
in the relation of their own disasters and defeats.474
467 Zingis Khan, and his first successors, occupy the conclusion of the ixth Dynasty of Abulpharagius, (vers Pocock, Oxon 1663, in 4to;) and his xth Dynasty
is that of the Moguls of Persia Assemannus (Bibliot Orient tom ii) has extracted
some facts from his Syriac writings, and the lives of the Jacobite maphrians, or
primates of the East.
468 Among the Arabians, in language and religion, we may distinguish Abulfeda, sultan of Hamah in Syria, who fought in person, under the Mamaluke
standard, against the Moguls.
469 Nicephorus Gregoras (l ii c 5, 6) has felt the necessity of connecting the
Scythian and Byzantine histories He describes with truth and elegance the settlement and manners of the Moguls of Persia, but he is ignorant of their origin,
and corrupts the names of Zingis and his sons.
470 M Levesque (Histoire de Russie, tom ii) has described the conquest of Russia by the Tartars, from the patriarch Nicon, and the old chronicles.
471 For Poland, I am content with the Sarmatia Asiatica et Europæa of
Matthew à Michou, or De Michoviâ, a canon and physician of Cracow, (AD
1506,) inserted in the Novus Orbis of Grynæus Fabric Bibliot Latin Mediæ et
Infimæ Ætatis, tom v p 56.
472 I should quote Thuroczius, the oldest general historian (pars ii c 74, p 150)
in the 1st volume of the Scriptores Rerum Hungaricarum, did not the same
volume contain the original narrative of a contemporary, an eye-witness, and
a sufferer, (M Rogerii, Hungari, Varadiensis Capituli Canonici, Carmen miserabile, seu Historia super Destructione Regni Hungariæ Temporibus Belæ IV
Regis per Tartaros facta, p 292–321;) the best picture that I have ever seen of all
the circumstances of a Barbaric invasion.
473 Matthew Paris has represented, from authentic documents, the danger and
distress of Europe, (consult the word Tartari in his copious Index) From motives
of zeal and curiosity, the court of the great khan in the xiiith century was visited
by two friars, John de Plano Carpini, and William Rubruquis, and by Marco
Polo, a Venetian gentleman The Latin relations of the two former are inserted
in the 1st volume of Hackluyt; the Italian original or version of the third (Fabric
Bibliot Latin Medii Ævi, tom ii p 198, tom v p 25) may be found in the second
tome of Ramusio.
474 In his great History of the Huns, M de Guignes has most amply treated of
Zingis Khan and his successors See tom iii l xv–xix, and in the collateral articles
of the Seljukians of Roum, tom ii l xi, the Carizmians, l xiv, and the Mamalukes,
tom iv l xxi; consult likewise the tables of the 1st volume He is ever learned
and accurate; yet I am only indebted to him for a general view, and some passages of Abulfeda, which are still latent in the Arabic text * Note: To this catalogue of the historians of the Moguls may be added D’Ohson, Histoire des
Mongols; Histoire des Mongols, (from Arabic and Persian authorities,) Paris,
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Part II
arms of Zingis and his lieutenants successively reT
duced the hordes of the desert, who pitched their tents
between the wall of China and the Volga; and the Mogul emHE
peror became the monarch of the pastoral world, the lord
of many millions of shepherds and soldiers, who felt their
united strength, and were impatient to rush on the mild and
wealthy climates of the south. His ancestors had been the
tributaries of the Chinese emperors; and Temugin himself
had been disgraced by a title of honor and servitude. The
court of Pekin was astonished by an embassy from its former vassal, who, in the tone of the king of nations, exacted
the tribute and obedience which he had paid, and who affected to treat the son of heaven as the most contemptible of
mankind. A haughty answer disguised their secret apprehensions; and their fears were soon justified by the march
of innumerable squadrons, who pierced on all sides the feeble rampart of the great wall. Ninety cities were stormed, or
starved, by the Moguls; ten only escaped; and Zingis, from
a knowledge of the filial piety of the Chinese, covered his
vanguard with their captive parents; an unworthy, and by
degrees a fruitless, abuse of the virtue of his enemies. His
invasion was supported by the revolt of a hundred thousand
Khitans, who guarded the frontier: yet he listened to a treaty;
and a princess of China, three thousand horses, five hundred
youths, and as many virgins, and a tribute of gold and silk,
were the price of his retreat. In his second expedition, he
compelled the Chinese emperor to retire beyond the yellow
1824 Schmidt, Geschichte der Ost Mongolen, St Petersburgh, 1829 This curious
work, by Ssanang Ssetsen Chungtaidschi, published in the original Mongol,
was written after the conversion of the nation to Buddhism: it is enriched with
very valuable notes by the editor and translator; but, unfortunately, is very barren of information about the European and even the western Asiatic conquests
of the Mongols–M.
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river to a more southern residence. The siege of Pekin475 was
long and laborious: the inhabitants were reduced by famine
to decimate and devour their fellow-citizens; when their ammunition was spent, they discharged ingots of gold and silver from their engines; but the Moguls introduced a mine to
the centre of the capital; and the conflagration of the palace
burnt above thirty days. China was desolated by Tartar war
and domestic faction; and the five northern provinces were
added to the empire of Zingis.
In the West, he touched the dominions of Mohammed, sultan of Carizme, who reigned from the Persian Gulf to the
borders of India and Turkestan; and who, in the proud imitation of Alexander the Great, forgot the servitude and ingratitude of his fathers to the house of Seljuk. It was the
wish of Zingis to establish a friendly and commercial intercourse with the most powerful of the Moslem princes: nor
could he be tempted by the secret solicitations of the caliph
of Bagdad, who sacrificed to his personal wrongs the safety
of the church and state. A rash and inhuman deed provoked
and justified the Tartar arms in the invasion of the southern
Asia.476 A caravan of three ambassadors and one hundred
and fifty merchants were arrested and murdered at Otrar,
by the command of Mohammed; nor was it till after a demand and denial of justice, till he had prayed and fasted three
nights on a mountain, that the Mogul emperor appealed to
the judgment of God and his sword. Our European battles,
says a philosophic writer,477 are petty skirmishes, if com475 More properly Yen-king, an ancient city, whose ruins still appear some furlongs to the south-east of the modern Pekin, which was built by Cublai Khan,
(Gaubel, p 146) Pe-king and Nan-king are vague titles, the courts of the north
and of the south The identity and change of names perplex the most skilful
readers of the Chinese geography, (p 177) * Note: And likewise in Chinese
history–see Abel Remusat, Mel Asiat 2d tom ii p 5–M.
476 See the particular account of this transaction, from the Kholauesut el Akbaur, in Price, vol ii p 402–M.
477 M de Voltaire, Essai sur l’Histoire Générale, tom iii c 60, p 8 His account of
Zingis and the Moguls contains, as usual, much general sense and truth, with
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PART II
pared to the numbers that have fought and fallen in the fields
of Asia. Seven hundred thousand Moguls and Tartars are
said to have marched under the standard of Zingis and his
four sons. In the vast plains that extend to the north of the
Sihon or Jaxartes, they were encountered by four hundred
thousand soldiers of the sultan; and in the first battle, which
was suspended by the night, one hundred and sixty thousand Carizmians were slain. Mohammed was astonished by
the multitude and valor of his enemies: he withdrew from
the scene of danger, and distributed his troops in the frontier
towns; trusting that the Barbarians, invincible in the field,
would be repulsed by the length and difficulty of so many
regular sieges. But the prudence of Zingis had formed a body
of Chinese engineers, skilled in the mechanic arts; informed
perhaps of the secret of gunpowder, and capable, under his
discipline, of attacking a foreign country with more vigor
and success than they had defended their own. The Persian historians will relate the sieges and reduction of Otrar,
Cogende, Bochara, Samarcand, Carizme, Herat, Merou, Nisabour, Balch, and Candahar; and the conquest of the rich and
populous countries of Transoxiana, Carizme, and Chorazan.
[204 The destructive hostilities of Attila and the Huns have
long since been elucidated by the example of Zingis and the
Moguls; and in this more proper place I shall be content to
observe, that, from the Caspian to the Indus, they ruined a
tract of many hundred miles, which was adorned with the
habitations and labors of mankind, and that five centuries
have not been sufficient to repair the ravages of four years.
The Mogul emperor encouraged or indulged the fury of his
troops: the hope of future possession was lost in the ardor of
rapine and slaughter; and the cause of the war exasperated
their native fierceness by the pretence of justice and revenge.
The downfall and death of the sultan Mohammed, who expired, unpitied and alone, in a desert island of the Caspian
Sea, is a poor atonement for the calamities of which he was
some particular errors.
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PART II
the author. Could the Carizmian empire have been saved by
a single hero, it would have been saved by his son Gelaleddin, whose active valor repeatedly checked the Moguls in the
career of victory. Retreating, as he fought, to the banks of the
Indus, he was oppressed by their innumerable host, till, in
the last moment of despair, Gelaleddin spurred his horse into
the waves, swam one of the broadest and most rapid rivers
of Asia, and extorted the admiration and applause of Zingis
himself. It was in this camp that the Mogul conqueror yielded
with reluctance to the murmurs of his weary and wealthy
troops, who sighed for the enjoyment of their native land. Eucumbered with the spoils of Asia, he slowly measured back
his footsteps, betrayed some pity for the misery of the vanquished, and declared his intention of rebuilding the cities
which had been swept away by the tempest of his arms. After he had repassed the Oxus and Jaxartes, he was joined by
two generals, whom he had detached with thirty thousand
horse, to subdue the western provinces of Persia. They had
trampled on the nations which opposed their passage, penetrated through the gates of Derbent, traversed the Volga and
the desert, and accomplished the circuit of the Caspian Sea,
by an expedition which had never been attempted, and has
never been repeated. The return of Zingis was signalized by
the overthrow of the rebellious or independent kingdoms of
Tartary; and he died in the fulness of years and glory, with
his last breath exhorting and instructing his sons to achieve
the conquest of the Chinese empire.478
The harem of Zingis was composed of five hundred wives
and concubines; and of his numerous progeny, four sons, illustrious by their birth and merit, exercised under their father the principal offices of peace and war. Toushi was his
great huntsman, Zagatai479 his judge, Octai his minister, and
478 Their first duty, which he bequeathed to them, was to massacre the king
of Tangcoute and all the inhabitants of Ninhia, the surrender of the city being
already agreed upon, Hist des Mongols vol i p 286–M.
479 Zagatai gave his name to his dominions of Maurenahar, or Transoxiana;
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Tuli his general; and their names and actions are often conspicuous in the history of his conquests. Firmly united for
their own and the public interest, the three brothers and their
families were content with dependent sceptres; and Octai, by
general consent, was proclaimed great khan, or emperor of
the Moguls and Tartars. He was succeeded by his son Gayuk,
after whose death the empire devolved to his cousins Mangou and Cublai, the sons of Tuli, and the grandsons of Zingis.
In the sixty-eight years of his four first successors, the Mogul
subdued almost all Asia, and a large portion of Europe. Without confining myself to the order of time, without expatiating
on the detail of events, I shall present a general picture of the
progress of their arms; I. In the East; II. In the South; III. In
the West; and IV. In the North.
I. Before the invasion of Zingis, China was divided into
two empires or dynasties of the North and South;480 and the
difference of origin and interest was smoothed by a general
conformity of laws, language, and national manners. The
Northern empire, which had been dismembered by Zingis,
was finally subdued seven years after his death. After the
loss of Pekin, the emperor had fixed his residence at Kaifong,
a city many leagues in circumference, and which contained,
according to the Chinese annals, fourteen hundred thousand
families of inhabitants and fugitives. He escaped from thence
with only seven horsemen, and made his last stand in a third
capital, till at length the hopeless monarch, protesting his innocence and accusing his fortune, ascended a funeral pile,
and the Moguls of Hindostan, who emigrated from that country, are styled
Zagatais by the Persians This certain etymology, and the similar example of
Uzbek, Nogai, &c, may warn us not absolutely to reject the derivations of a
national, from a personal, name * Note: See a curious anecdote of Tschagatai
Hist des Mongols, p 370–M.
480 In Marco Polo, and the Oriental geographers, the names of Cathay and
Mangi distinguish the northern and southern empires, which, from AD 1234 to
1279, were those of the great khan, and of the Chinese The search of Cathay,
after China had been found, excited and misled our navigators of the sixteenth
century, in their attempts to discover the north-east passage.
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and gave orders, that, as soon as he had stabbed himself,
the fire should be kindled by his attendants. The dynasty
of the Song, the native and ancient sovereigns of the whole
empire, survived about forty-five years the fall of the Northern usurpers; and the perfect conquest was reserved for the
arms of Cublai. During this interval, the Moguls were often
diverted by foreign wars; and, if the Chinese seldom dared to
meet their victors in the field, their passive courage presented
and endless succession of cities to storm and of millions to
slaughter. In the attack and defence of places, the engines
of antiquity and the Greek fire were alternately employed:
the use of gunpowder in cannon and bombs appears as a familiar practice;481 and the sieges were conducted by the Mahometans and Franks, who had been liberally invited into
the service of Cublai. After passing the great river, the troops
and artillery were conveyed along a series of canals, till they
invested the royal residence of Hamcheu, or Quinsay, in the
country of silk, the most delicious climate of China. The emperor, a defenceless youth, surrendered his person and sceptre; and before he was sent in exile into Tartary, he struck
481 I depend on the knowledge and fidelity of the Père Gaubil, who translates
the Chinese text of the annals of the Moguls or Yuen, (p 71, 93, 153;) but I
am ignorant at what time these annals were composed and published The two
uncles of Marco Polo, who served as engineers at the siege of Siengyangfou, *
(l ii 61, in Ramusio, tom ii See Gaubil, p 155, 157) must have felt and related
the effects of this destructive powder, and their silence is a weighty, and almost
decisive objection I entertain a suspicion, that their recent discovery was carried
from Europe to China by the caravans of the xvth century and falsely adopted
as an old national discovery before the arrival of the Portuguese and Jesuits
in the xvith Yet the Père Gaubil affirms, that the use of gunpowder has been
known to the Chinese above 1600 years ** Note: * Sou-houng-kian-lou Abel
Remusat–M Note: ** La poudre à canon et d’autres compositions inflammantes,
dont ils se servent pour construire des pièces d’artifice d’un effet suprenant,
leur étaient connues depuis très long-temps, et l’on croit que des bombardes et
des pierriers, dont ils avaient enseigné l’usage aux Tartares, ont pu donner en
Europe l’idée d’artillerie, quoique la forme des fusils et des canons dont ils se
servent actuellement, leur ait été apportée par les Francs, ainsi que l’attestent
les noms mêmes qu’ils donnent à ces sortes d’armes Abel Remusat, Mélanges
Asiat 2d ser tom i p 23–M.
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nine times the ground with his forehead, to adore in prayer
or thanksgiving the mercy of the great khan. Yet the war (it
was now styled a rebellion) was still maintained in the southern provinces from Hamcheu to Canton; and the obstinate
remnant of independence and hostility was transported from
the land to the sea. But when the fleet of the Song was surrounded and oppressed by a superior armament, their last
champion leaped into the waves with his infant emperor in
his arms. “It is more glorious,” he cried, “to die a prince, than
to live a slave.” A hundred thousand Chinese imitated his example; and the whole empire, from Tonkin to the great wall,
submitted to the dominion of Cublai. His boundless ambition aspired to the conquest of Japan: his fleet was twice shipwrecked; and the lives of a hundred thousand Moguls and
Chinese were sacrificed in the fruitless expedition. But the
circumjacent kingdoms, Corea, Tonkin, Cochinchina, Pegu,
Bengal, and Thibet, were reduced in different degrees of tribute and obedience by the effort or terror of his arms. He
explored the Indian Ocean with a fleet of a thousand ships:
they sailed in sixty-eight days, most probably to the Isle of
Borneo, under the equinoctial line; and though they returned
not without spoil or glory, the emperor was dissatisfied that
the savage king had escaped from their hands.
II. The conquest of Hindostan by the Moguls was reserved
in a later period for the house of Timour; but that of Iran,
or Persia, was achieved by Holagou Khan,482 the grandson
of Zingis, the brother and lieutenant of the two successive
emperors, Mangou and Cublai. I shall not enumerate the
crowd of sultans, emirs, and atabeks, whom he trampled into
dust; but the extirpation of the Assassins, or Ismaelians483 of
482 See the curious account of the expedition of Holagou, translated from the
Chinese, by M Abel Remusat, Mélanges Asiat 2d ser tom i p 171–M.
483 All that can be known of the Assassins of Persia and Syria is poured from
the copious, and even profuse, erudition of M Falconet, in two Mémoires read
before the Academy of Inscriptions, (tom xvii p 127–170) * Note: Von Hammer’s History of the Assassins has now thrown Falconet’s Dissertation into the
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Persia, may be considered as a service to mankind. Among
the hills to the south of the Caspian, these odious sectaries
had reigned with impunity above a hundred and sixty years;
and their prince, or Imam, established his lieutenant to lead
and govern the colony of Mount Libanus, so famous and
formidable in the history of the crusades.484 With the fanaticism of the Koran the Ismaelians had blended the Indian
transmigration, and the visions of their own prophets; and it
was their first duty to devote their souls and bodies in blind
obedience to the vicar of God. The daggers of his missionaries were felt both in the East and West: the Christians and
the Moslems enumerate, and persons multiply, the illustrious
victims that were sacrificed to the zeal, avarice, or resentment
of the old man (as he was corruptly styled) of the mountain. But
these daggers, his only arms, were broken by the sword of
Holagou, and not a vestige is left of the enemies of mankind,
except the word assassin, which, in the most odious sense, has
been adopted in the languages of Europe. The extinction of
the Abbassides cannot be indifferent to the spectators of their
greatness and decline. Since the fall of their Seljukian tyrants
the caliphs had recovered their lawful dominion of Bagdad
and the Arabian Irak; but the city was distracted by theological factions, and the commander of the faithful was lost in
a harem of seven hundred concubines. The invasion of the
Moguls he encountered with feeble arms and haughty embassies. “On the divine decree,” said the caliph Mostasem,
“is founded the throne of the sons of Abbas: and their foes
shall surely be destroyed in this world and in the next. Who
is this Holagou that dares to rise against them? If he be desirous of peace, let him instantly depart from the sacred territory; and perhaps he may obtain from our clemency the pardon of his fault.” This presumption was cherished by a pershade–M.
484 The Ismaelians of Syria, 40,000 Assassins, had acquired or founded ten
castles in the hills above Tortosa About the year 1280, they were extirpated by
the Mamalukes.
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fidious vizier, who assured his master, that, even if the Barbarians had entered the city, the women and children, from
the terraces, would be sufficient to overwhelm them with
stones. But when Holagou touched the phantom, it instantly
vanished into smoke. After a siege of two months, Bagdad
was stormed and sacked by the Moguls; [* and their savage
commander pronounced the death of the caliph Mostasem,
the last of the temporal successors of Mahomet; whose noble kinsmen, of the race of Abbas, had reigned in Asia above
five hundred years. Whatever might be the designs of the
conqueror, the holy cities of Mecca and Medina485 were protected by the Arabian desert; but the Moguls spread beyond the Tigris and Euphrates, pillaged Aleppo and Damascus, and threatened to join the Franks in the deliverance
of Jerusalem. Egypt was lost, had she been defended only by
her feeble offspring; but the Mamalukes had breathed in their
infancy the keenness of a Scythian air: equal in valor, superior in discipline, they met the Moguls in many a well-fought
field; and drove back the stream of hostility to the eastward
of the Euphrates.486 But it overflowed with resistless violence the kingdoms of Armenia487 and Anatolia, of which
the former was possessed by the Christians, and the latter by
the Turks. The sultans of Iconium opposed some resistance
to the Mogul arms, till Azzadin sought a refuge among the
Greeks of Constantinople, and his feeble successors, the last
of the Seljukian dynasty, were finally extirpated by the khans
of Persia.488
485 As a proof of the ignorance of the Chinese in foreign transactions, I must
observe, that some of their historians extend the conquest of Zingis himself to
Medina, the country of Mahomet, (Gaubil p 42).
486 Compare Wilken, vol vii p 410–M.
487 On the friendly relations of the Armenians with the Mongols see Wilken,
Geschichte der Kreuzzüge, vol vii p 402 They eagerly desired an alliance
against the Mahometan powers–M.
488 Trebizond escaped, apparently by the dexterous politics of the sovereign,
but it acknowledged the Mogul supremacy Falmerayer, p 172–M.
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III. No sooner had Octai subverted the northern empire of
China, than he resolved to visit with his arms the most remote
countries of the West. Fifteen hundred thousand Moguls and
Tartars were inscribed on the military roll: of these the great
khan selected a third, which he intrusted to the command
of his nephew Batou, the son of Tuli; who reigned over his
father’s conquests to the north of the Caspian Sea.489 After a festival of forty days, Batou set forwards on this great
expedition; and such was the speed and ardor of his innumerable squadrons, than in less than six years they had measured a line of ninety degrees of longitude, a fourth part of
the circumference of the globe. The great rivers of Asia and
Europe, the Volga and Kama, the Don and Borysthenes, the
Vistula and Danube, they either swam with their horses or
passed on the ice, or traversed in leathern boats, which followed the camp, and transported their wagons and artillery.
By the first victories of Batou, the remains of national freedom were eradicated in the immense plains of Turkestan and
Kipzak.490 In his rapid progress, he overran the kingdoms, as
they are now styled, of Astracan and Cazan; and the troops
which he detached towards Mount Caucasus explored the
most secret recesses of Georgia and Circassia. The civil discord of the great dukes, or princes, of Russia, betrayed their
country to the Tartars. They spread from Livonia to the Black
Sea, and both Moscow and Kiow, the modern and the ancient
capitals, were reduced to ashes; a temporary ruin, less fatal
than the deep, and perhaps indelible, mark, which a servitude of two hundred years has imprinted on the character of
the Russians. The Tartars ravaged with equal fury the countries which they hoped to possess, and those which they were
hastening to leave. From the permanent conquest of Russia
489 See the curious extracts from the Mahometan writers, Hist des Mongols, p
707–M.
490 The Dashté Kipzak, or plain of Kipzak, extends on either side of the Volga,
in a boundless space towards the Jaik and Borysthenes, and is supposed to
contain the primitive name and nation of the Cossacks.
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they made a deadly, though transient, inroad into the heart
of Poland, and as far as the borders of Germany. The cities of
Lublin and Cracow were obliterated:491 they approached the
shores of the Baltic; and in the battle of Lignitz they defeated
the dukes of Silesia, the Polish palatines, and the great master
of the Teutonic order, and filled nine sacks with the right ears
of the slain. From Lignitz, the extreme point of their western
march, they turned aside to the invasion of Hungary; and the
presence or spirit of Batou inspired the host of five hundred
thousand men: the Carpathian hills could not be long impervious to their divided columns; and their approach had been
fondly disbelieved till it was irresistibly felt. The king, Bela
the Fourth, assembled the military force of his counts and
bishops; but he had alienated the nation by adopting a vagrant horde of forty thousand families of Comans, and these
savage guests were provoked to revolt by the suspicion of
treachery and the murder of their prince. The whole country north of the Danube was lost in a day, and depopulated
in a summer; and the ruins of cities and churches were overspread with the bones of the natives, who expiated the sins
of their Turkish ancestors. An ecclesiastic, who fled from the
sack of Waradin, describes the calamities which he had seen,
or suffered; and the sanguinary rage of sieges and battles is
far less atrocious than the treatment of the fugitives, who had
been allured from the woods under a promise of peace and
pardon and who were coolly slaughtered as soon as they had
performed the labors of the harvest and vintage. In the winter the Tartars passed the Danube on the ice, and advanced
to Gran or Strigonium, a German colony, and the metropolis of the kingdom. Thirty engines were planted against the
walls; the ditches were filled with sacks of earth and dead
bodies; and after a promiscuous massacre, three hundred noble matrons were slain in the presence of the khan. Of all
the cities and fortresses of Hungary, three alone survived the
491 Olmutz was gallantly and successfully defended by Stenberg, Hist des
Mongols, p 396–M.
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Tartar invasion, and the unfortunate Bata hid his head among
the islands of the Adriatic.
The Latin world was darkened by this cloud of savage hostility: a Russian fugitive carried the alarm to Sweden; and the
remote nations of the Baltic and the ocean trembled at the approach of the Tartars,492 whom their fear and ignorance were
inclined to separate from the human species. Since the invasion of the Arabs in the eighth century, Europe had never
been exposed to a similar calamity: and if the disciples of
Mahomet would have oppressed her religion and liberty, it
might be apprehended that the shepherds of Scythia would
extinguish her cities, her arts, and all the institutions of civil
society. The Roman pontiff attempted to appease and convert these invincible Pagans by a mission of Franciscan and
Dominican friars; but he was astonished by the reply of the
khan, that the sons of God and of Zingis were invested with
a divine power to subdue or extirpate the nations; and that
the pope would be involved in the universal destruction, unless he visited in person, and as a suppliant, the royal horde.
The emperor Frederic the Second embraced a more generous
mode of defence; and his letters to the kings of France and
England, and the princes of Germany, represented the common danger, and urged them to arm their vassals in this just
and rational crusade.493 The Tartars themselves were awed
492 In the year 1238, the inhabitants of Gothia (Sweden) and Frise were prevented, by their fear of the Tartars, from sending, as usual, their ships to the
herring fishery on the coast of England; and as there was no exportation, forty
or fifty of these fish were sold for a shilling, (Matthew Paris, p 396) It is whimsical enough, that the orders of a Mogul khan, who reigned on the borders of
China, should have lowered the price of herrings in the English market.
493 I shall copy his characteristic or flattering epithets of the different countries
of Europe: Furens ac fervens ad arma Germania, strenuæ militiæ genitrix et
alumna Francia, bellicosa et audax Hispania, virtuosa viris et classe munita fertilis Anglia, impetuosis bellatoribus referta Alemannia, navalis Dacia, indomita
Italia, pacis ignara Burgundia, inquieta Apulia, cum maris Græci, Adriatici et
Tyrrheni insulis pyraticis et invictis, Cretâ, Cypro, Siciliâ, cum Oceano conterterminis insulis, et regionibus, cruenta Hybernia, cum agili Wallia palustris Scotia, glacialis Norwegia, suam electam militiam sub vexillo Crucis destinabunt,
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by the fame and valor of the Franks; the town of Newstadt in
Austria was bravely defended against them by fifty knights
and twenty crossbows; and they raised the siege on the appearance of a German army. After wasting the adjacent kingdoms of Servia, Bosnia, and Bulgaria, Batou slowly retreated
from the Danube to the Volga to enjoyed the rewards of victory in the city and palace of Serai, which started at his command from the midst of the desert.494
IV. Even the poor and frozen regions of the north attracted
the arms of the Moguls: Sheibani khan, the brother of the
great Batou, led a horde of fifteen thousand families into the
wilds of Siberia; and his descendants reigned at Tobolskoi
above three centuries, till the Russian conquest. The spirit of
enterprise which pursued the course of the Oby and Yenisei
must have led to the discovery of the icy sea. After brushing away the monstrous fables, of men with dogs’ heads and
cloven feet, we shall find, that, fifteen years after the death
of Zingis, the Moguls were informed of the name and manners of the Samoyedes in the neighborhood of the polar circle,
who dwelt in subterraneous huts, and derived their furs and
their food from the sole occupation of hunting.495
While China, Syria, and Poland, were invaded at the same
time by the Moguls and Tartars, the authors of the mighty
mischief were content with the knowledge and declaration,
that their word was the sword of death. Like the first caliphs,
the first successors of Zingis seldom appeared in person at
the head of their victorious armies. On the banks of the Onon
and Selinga, the royal or golden horde exhibited the contrast
&c (Matthew Paris, p 498).
494 He was recalled by the death of Octai–M.
495 See Carpin’s relation in Hackluyt, vol i p 30 The pedigree of the khans of
Siberia is given by Abulghazi, (part viii p 485–495) Have the Russians found
no Tartar chronicles at Tobolskoi? * Note: * See the account of the Mongol
library in Bergman, Nomadische Streifereyen, vol iii p 185, 205, and Remusat,
Hist des Langues Tartares, p 327, and preface to Schmidt, Geschichte der OstMongolen–M.
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PART II
of simplicity and greatness; of the roasted sheep and mare’s
milk which composed their banquets; and of a distribution in
one day of five hundred wagons of gold and silver. The ambassadors and princes of Europe and Asia were compelled to
undertake this distant and laborious pilgrimage; and the life
and reign of the great dukes of Russia, the kings of Georgia
and Armenia, the sultans of Iconium, and the emirs of Persia,
were decided by the frown or smile of the great khan. The
sons and grandsons of Zingis had been accustomed to the
pastoral life; but the village of Caracorum496 was gradually
ennobled by their election and residence. A change of manners is implied in the removal of Octai and Mangou from a
tent to a house; and their example was imitated by the princes
of their family and the great officers of the empire. Instead
of the boundless forest, the enclosure of a park afforded the
more indolent pleasures of the chase; their new habitations
were decorated with painting and sculpture; their superfluous treasures were cast in fountains, and basins, and statues
of massy silver; and the artists of China and Paris vied with
each other in the service of the great khan.497 Caracorum contained two streets, the one of Chinese mechanics, the other of
Mahometan traders; and the places of religious worship, one
Nestorian church, two mosques, and twelve temples of various idols, may represent in some degree the number and division of inhabitants. Yet a French missionary declares, that
the town of St. Denys, near Paris, was more considerable
than the Tartar capital; and that the whole palace of Mangou was scarcely equal to a tenth part of that Benedictine
496 The Map of D’Anville and the Chinese Itineraries (De Guignes, tom i part
ii p 57) seem to mark the position of Holin, or Caracorum, about six hundred
miles to the north-west of Pekin The distance between Selinginsky and Pekin is
near 2000 Russian versts, between 1300 and 1400 English miles, (Bell’s Travels,
vol ii p 67).
497 Rubruquis found at Caracorum his countryman Guillaume Boucher, orfevre de
Paris, who had executed for the khan a silver tree supported by four lions, and
ejecting four different liquors Abulghazi (part iv p 366) mentions the painters
of Kitay or China.
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abbey. The conquests of Russia and Syria might amuse the
vanity of the great khans; but they were seated on the borders of China; the acquisition of that empire was the nearest
and most interesting object; and they might learn from their
pastoral economy, that it is for the advantage of the shepherd
to protect and propagate his flock. I have already celebrated
the wisdom and virtue of a Mandarin who prevented the desolation of five populous and cultivated provinces. In a spotless administration of thirty years, this friend of his country
and of mankind continually labored to mitigate, or suspend,
the havoc of war; to save the monuments, and to rekindle
the flame, of science; to restrain the military commander by
the restoration of civil magistrates; and to instil the love of
peace and justice into the minds of the Moguls. He struggled
with the barbarism of the first conquerors; but his salutary
lessons produced a rich harvest in the second generation.498
The northern, and by degrees the southern, empire acquiesced in the government of Cublai, the lieutenant, and afterwards the successor, of Mangou; and the nation was loyal to
a prince who had been educated in the manners of China. He
restored the forms of her venerable constitution; and the victors submitted to the laws, the fashions, and even the prejudices, of the vanquished people. This peaceful triumph,
which has been more than once repeated, may be ascribed,
in a great measure, to the numbers and servitude of the Chinese. The Mogul army was dissolved in a vast and populous
country; and their emperors adopted with pleasure a political system, which gives to the prince the solid substance of
despotism, and leaves to the subject the empty names of philosophy, freedom, and filial obedience.499 Under the reign
of Cublai, letters and commerce, peace and justice, were restored; the great canal, of five hundred miles, was opened
498 See the interesting sketch of the life of this minister (Yelin-Thsouthsai) in
the second volume of the second series of Recherches Asiatiques, par A Remusat, p 64–M.
499 Compare Hist des Mongols, p 616–M.
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from Nankin to the capital: he fixed his residence at Pekin;
and displayed in his court the magnificence of the greatest
monarch of Asia. Yet this learned prince declined from the
pure and simple religion of his great ancestor: he sacrificed
to the idol Fo; and his blind attachment to the lamas of Thibet
and the bonzes of China500 provoked the censure of the disciples of Confucius. His successors polluted the palace with a
crowd of eunuchs, physicians, and astrologers, while thirteen
millions of their subjects were consumed in the provinces
by famine. One hundred and forty years after the death of
Zingis, his degenerate race, the dynasty of the Yuen, was expelled by a revolt of the native Chinese; and the Mogul emperors were lost in the oblivion of the desert. Before this revolution, they had forfeited their supremacy over the dependent branches of their house, the khans of Kipzak and Russia,
the khans of Zagatai, or Transoxiana, and the khans of Iran or
Persia. By their distance and power, these royal lieutenants
had soon been released from the duties of obedience; and after the death of Cublai, they scorned to accept a sceptre or
a title from his unworthy successors. According to their respective situations, they maintained the simplicity of the pastoral life, or assumed the luxury of the cities of Asia; but the
princes and their hordes were alike disposed for the reception of a foreign worship. After some hesitation between the
Gospel and the Koran, they conformed to the religion of Mahomet; and while they adopted for their brethren the Arabs
and Persians, they renounced all intercourse with the ancient
Moguls, the idolaters of China.
500 The attachment of the khans, and the hatred of the mandarins, to the
bonzes and lamas (Duhalde, Hist de la Chine, tom i p 502, 503) seems to represent them as the priests of the same god, of the Indian Fo, whose worship
prevails among the sects of Hindostan Siam, Thibet, China, and Japan But this
mysterious subject is still lost in a cloud, which the researchers of our Asiatic
Society may gradually dispel.
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Part III
this shipwreck of nations, some surprise may be exIthecited
by the escape of the Roman empire, whose relics, at
time of the Mogul invasion, were dismembered by the
N
Greeks and Latins. Less potent than Alexander, they were
pressed, like the Macedonian, both in Europe and Asia, by
the shepherds of Scythia; and had the Tartars undertaken
the siege, Constantinople must have yielded to the fate of
Pekin, Samarcand, and Bagdad. The glorious and voluntary
retreat of Batou from the Danube was insulted by the vain
triumph of the Franks and Greeks;501 and in a second expedition death surprised him in full march to attack the capital
of the Cæsars. His brother Borga carried the Tartar arms into
Bulgaria and Thrace; but he was diverted from the Byzantine
war by a visit to Novogorod, in the fifty-seventh degree of latitude, where he numbered the inhabitants and regulated the
tributes of Russia. The Mogul khan formed an alliance with
the Mamalukes against his brethren of Persia: three hundred thousand horse penetrated through the gates of Derbend; and the Greeks might rejoice in the first example of
domestic war. After the recovery of Constantinople, Michael
Palæologus,502 at a distance from his court and army, was
surprised and surrounded in a Thracian castle, by twenty
thousand Tartars. But the object of their march was a private
interest: they came to the deliverance of Azzadin, the Turkish sultan; and were content with his person and the treasure
of the emperor. Their general Noga, whose name is perpetuated in the hordes of Astracan, raised a formidable rebellion against Mengo Timour, the third of the khans of Kipzak;
501 Some repulse of the Moguls in Hungary (Matthew Paris, p 545, 546) might
propagate and color the report of the union and victory of the kings of the
Franks on the confines of Bulgaria Abulpharagius (Dynast p 310) after forty
years, beyond the Tigris, might be easily deceived.
502 See Pachymer, l iii c 25, and l ix c 26, 27; and the false alarm at Nice, l iii c
27 Nicephorus Gregoras, l iv c 6.
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obtained in marriage Maria, the natural daughter of Palæologus; and guarded the dominions of his friend and father.
The subsequent invasions of a Scythian cast were those of
outlaws and fugitives: and some thousands of Alani and Comans, who had been driven from their native seats, were reclaimed from a vagrant life, and enlisted in the service of the
empire. Such was the influence in Europe of the invasion of
the Moguls. The first terror of their arms secured, rather than
disturbed, the peace of the Roman Asia. The sultan of Iconium solicited a personal interview with John Vataces; and
his artful policy encouraged the Turks to defend their barrier
against the common enemy.503 That barrier indeed was soon
overthrown; and the servitude and ruin of the Seljukians exposed the nakedness of the Greeks. The formidable Holagou
threatened to march to Constantinople at the head of four
hundred thousand men; and the groundless panic of the citizens of Nice will present an image of the terror which he
had inspired. The accident of a procession, and the sound
of a doleful litany, “From the fury of the Tartars, good Lord,
deliver us,” had scattered the hasty report of an assault and
massacre. In the blind credulity of fear, the streets of Nice
were crowded with thousands of both sexes, who knew not
from what or to whom they fled; and some hours elapsed before the firmness of the military officers could relieve the city
from this imaginary foe. But the ambition of Holagou and
his successors was fortunately diverted by the conquest of
Bagdad, and a long vicissitude of Syrian wars; their hostility
to the Moslems inclined them to unite with the Greeks and
Franks;504 and their generosity or contempt had offered the
kingdom of Anatolia as the reward of an Armenian vassal.
The fragments of the Seljukian monarchy were disputed by
503 G
Acropolita, p 36, 37 Nic Greg l ii c 6, l iv c 5.
who wrote in the year 1284, declares that the Moguls,
since the fabulous defeat of Batou, had not attacked either the Franks or Greeks;
and of this he is a competent witness Hayton likewise, the Armenian prince,
celebrates their friendship for himself and his nation.
504 Abulpharagius,
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PART III
the emirs who had occupied the cities or the mountains; but
they all confessed the supremacy of the khans of Persia; and
he often interposed his authority, and sometimes his arms,
to check their depredations, and to preserve the peace and
balance of his Turkish frontier. The death of Cazan,505 one
of the greatest and most accomplished princes of the house
of Zingis, removed this salutary control; and the decline of
the Moguls gave a free scope to the rise and progress of the
Ottoman Empire.506
After the retreat of Zingis, the sultan Gelaleddin of Carizme
had returned from India to the possession and defence of his
Persian kingdoms. In the space of eleven years, than hero
fought in person fourteen battles; and such was his activity,
that he led his cavalry in seventeen days from Teflis to Kerman, a march of a thousand miles. Yet he was oppressed
by the jealousy of the Moslem princes, and the innumerable
armies of the Moguls; and after his last defeat, Gelaleddin
perished ignobly in the mountains of Curdistan. His death
dissolved a veteran and adventurous army, which included
under the name of Carizmians or Corasmins many Turkman
hordes, that had attached themselves to the sultan’s fortune.
The bolder and more powerful chiefs invaded Syria, and violated the holy sepulchre of Jerusalem: the more humble engaged in the service of Aladin, sultan of Iconium; and among
these were the obscure fathers of the Ottoman line. They
had formerly pitched their tents near the southern banks of
the Oxus, in the plains of Mahan and Nesa; and it is some505 Pachymer gives a splendid character of Cazan Khan, the rival of Cyrus
and Alexander, (l xii c 1) In the conclusion of his history (l xiii c 36) he hopes
much from the arrival of 30,000 Tochars, or Tartars, who were ordered by the
successor of Cazan to restrain the Turks of Bithynia, AD 1308.
506 The origin of the Ottoman dynasty is illustrated by the critical learning
of Mm De Guignes (Hist des Huns, tom iv p 329–337) and D’Anville, (Empire
Turc, p 14–22,) two inhabitants of Paris, from whom the Orientals may learn
the history and geography of their own country * Note: They may be still more
enlightened by the Geschichte des Osman Reiches, by M von Hammer Purgstall
of Vienna–M.
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PART III
what remarkable, that the same spot should have produced
the first authors of the Parthian and Turkish empires. At the
head, or in the rear, of a Carizmian army, Soliman Shah was
drowned in the passage of the Euphrates: his son Orthogrul
became the soldier and subject of Aladin, and established at
Surgut, on the banks of the Sangar, a camp of four hundred
families or tents, whom he governed fifty-two years both in
peace and war. He was the father of Thaman, or Athman,
whose Turkish name has been melted into the appellation of
the caliph Othman; and if we describe that pastoral chief as
a shepherd and a robber, we must separate from those characters all idea of ignominy and baseness. Othman possessed,
and perhaps surpassed, the ordinary virtues of a soldier; and
the circumstances of time and place were propitious to his
independence and success. The Seljukian dynasty was no
more; and the distance and decline of the Mogul khans soon
enfranchised him from the control of a superior. He was situate on the verge of the Greek empire: the Koran sanctified
his gazi, or holy war, against the infidels; and their political
errors unlocked the passes of Mount Olympus, and invited
him to descend into the plains of Bithynia. Till the reign of
Palæologus, these passes had been vigilantly guarded by the
militia of the country, who were repaid by their own safety
and an exemption from taxes. The emperor abolished their
privilege and assumed their office; but the tribute was rigorously collected, the custody of the passes was neglected, and
the hardy mountaineers degenerated into a trembling crowd
of peasants without spirit or discipline. It was on the twentyseventh of July, in the year twelve hundred and ninety-nine
of the Christian æra, that Othman first invaded the territory of Nicomedia;507 and the singular accuracy of the date
seems to disclose some foresight of the rapid and destructive
growth of the monster. The annals of the twenty-seven years
507 See Pachymer, l x c 25, 26, l xiii c 33, 34, 36; and concerning the guard of
the mountains, l i c 3–6: Nicephorus Gregoras, l vii c l, and the first book of
Laonicus Chalcondyles, the Athenian.
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of his reign would exhibit a repetition of the same inroads;
and his hereditary troops were multiplied in each campaign
by the accession of captives and volunteers. Instead of retreating to the hills, he maintained the most useful and defensive posts; fortified the towns and castles which he had
first pillaged; and renounced the pastoral life for the baths
and palaces of his infant capitals. But it was not till Othman
was oppressed by age and infirmities, that he received the
welcome news of the conquest of Prusa, which had been surrendered by famine or treachery to the arms of his son Orchan. The glory of Othman is chiefly founded on that of his
descendants; but the Turks have transcribed or composed a
royal testament of his last counsels of justice and moderation.508
508 I am ignorant whether the Turks have any writers older than Mahomet II,
* nor can I reach beyond a meagre chronicle (Annales Turcici ad Annum 1550)
translated by John Gaudier, and published by Leunclavius, (ad calcem Laonic
Chalcond p 311–350,) with copious pandects, or commentaries The history of
the Growth and Decay (AD 1300–1683) of the Othman empire was translated
into English from the Latin MS of Demetrius Cantemir, prince of Moldavia,
(London, 1734, in folio) The author is guilty of strange blunders in Oriental
history; but he was conversant with the language, the annals, and institutions
of the Turks Cantemir partly draws his materials from the Synopsis of Saadi
Effendi of Larissa, dedicated in the year 1696 to Sultan Mustapha, and a valuable abridgment of the original historians In one of the Ramblers, Dr Johnson
praises Knolles (a General History of the Turks to the present Year London,
1603) as the first of historians, unhappy only in the choice of his subject Yet I
much doubt whether a partial and verbose compilation from Latin writers, thirteen hundred folio pages of speeches and battles, can either instruct or amuse
an enlightened age, which requires from the historian some tincture of philosophy and criticism Note: * We could have wished that M von Hammer had
given a more clear and distinct reply to this question of Gibbon In a note, vol i
p 630 M von Hammer shows that they had not only sheiks (religious writers)
and learned lawyers, but poets and authors on medicine But the inquiry of Gibbon obviously refers to historians The oldest of their historical works, of which
V Hammer makes use, is the “Tarichi Aaschik Paschasade,” i e the History of
the Great Grandson of Aaschik Pasha, who was a dervis and celebrated ascetic
poet in the reign of Murad (Amurath) I Ahmed, the author of the work, lived
during the reign of Bajazet II, but, he says, derived much information from the
book of Scheik Jachshi, the son of Elias, who was Imaum to Sultan Orchan, (the
second Ottoman king) and who related, from the lips of his father, the circum-
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From the conquest of Prusa, we may date the true æra of
the Ottoman empire. The lives and possessions of the Christian subjects were redeemed by a tribute or ransom of thirty
thousand crowns of gold; and the city, by the labors of Orchan, assumed the aspect of a Mahometan capital; Prusa was
decorated with a mosque, a college, and a hospital, of royal
foundation; the Seljukian coin was changed for the name and
impression of the new dynasty: and the most skilful professors, of human and divine knowledge, attracted the Persian
and Arabian students from the ancient schools of Oriental
learning. The office of vizier was instituted for Aladin, the
brother of Orchan;509 and a different habit distinguished the
citizens from the peasants, the Moslems from the infidels. All
the troops of Othman had consisted of loose squadrons of
Turkman cavalry; who served without pay and fought without discipline: but a regular body of infantry was first established and trained by the prudence of his son. A great
number of volunteers was enrolled with a small stipend, but
with the permission of living at home, unless they were summoned to the field: their rude manners, and seditious temper,
disposed Orchan to educate his young captives as his soldiers and those of the prophet; but the Turkish peasants were
still allowed to mount on horseback, and follow his standard,
with the appellation and the hopes of freebooters.510 By these
arts he formed an army of twenty-five thousand Moslems: a
train of battering engines was framed for the use of sieges;
and the first successful experiment was made on the cities
of Nice and Nicomedia. Orchan granted a safe-conduct to
all who were desirous of departing with their families and
stances of the earliest Ottoman history This book (having searched for it in vain
for five-and-twenty years) our author found at length in the Vatican All the
other Turkish histories on his list, as indeed this, were written during the reign
of Mahomet II It does not appear whether any of the rest cite earlier authorities
of equal value with that claimed by the “Tarichi Aaschik Paschasade”–M (in
Quarterly Review, vol xlix p 292).
509 Von Hammer, Osm Geschichte, vol i p 82–M.
510 Ibid p 91–M.
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effects; but the widows of the slain were given in marriage
to the conquerors; and the sacrilegious plunder, the books,
the vases, and the images, were sold or ransomed at Constantinople. The emperor Andronicus the Younger was vanquished and wounded by the son of Othman:511512 he subdued the whole province or kingdom of Bithynia, as far as the
shores of the Bosphorus and Hellespont; and the Christians
confessed the justice and clemency of a reign which claimed
the voluntary attachment of the Turks of Asia. Yet Orchan
was content with the modest title of emir; and in the list of
his compeers, the princes of Roum or Anatolia,513 his military
forces were surpassed by the emirs of Ghermian and Caramania, each of whom could bring into the field an army of forty
thousand men. Their domains were situate in the heart of the
Seljukian kingdom; but the holy warriors, though of inferior
note, who formed new principalities on the Greek empire,
are more conspicuous in the light of history. The maritime
country from the Propontis to the Mæander and the Isle of
Rhodes, so long threatened and so often pillaged, was finally
lost about the thirteenth year of Andronicus the Elder.514 Two
Turkish chieftains, Sarukhan and Aidin, left their names to
their conquests, and their conquests to their posterity. The
captivity or ruin of the seven churches of Asia was consummated; and the barbarous lords of Ionia and Lydia still trample on the monuments of classic and Christian antiquity. In
the loss of Ephesus, the Christians deplored the fall of the
511 Cantacuzene, though he relates the battle and heroic flight of the younger
Andronicus, (l ii c 6, 7, 8,) dissembles by his silence the loss of Prusa, Nice, and
Nicomedia, which are fairly confessed by Nicephorus Gregoras, (l viii 15, ix 9,
13, xi 6) It appears that Nice was taken by Orchan in 1330, and Nicomedia in
1339, which are somewhat different from the Turkish dates.
512 For the conquests of Orchan over the ten pachaliks, or kingdoms of the
Seljukians, in Asia Minor see V Hammer, vol i p 112–M.
513 The partition of the Turkish emirs is extracted from two contemporaries,
the Greek Nicephorus Gregoras (l vii 1) and the Arabian Marakeschi, (De
Guignes, tom ii P ii p 76, 77) See likewise the first book of Laonicus Chalcondyles.
514 Pachymer, l xiii c 13.
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first angel, the extinction of the first candlestick, of the Revelations;515 the desolation is complete; and the temple of Diana, or the church of Mary, will equally elude the search of
the curious traveller. The circus and three stately theatres of
Laodicea are now peopled with wolves and foxes; Sardes is
reduced to a miserable village; the God of Mahomet, without
a rival or a son, is invoked in the mosques of Thyatira and
Pergamus; and the populousness of Smyrna is supported by
the foreign trade of the Franks and Armenians. Philadelphia
alone has been saved by prophecy, or courage. At a distance
from the sea, forgotten by the emperors, encompassed on all
sides by the Turks, her valiant citizens defended their religion and freedom above fourscore years; and at length capitulated with the proudest of the Ottomans. Among the Greek
colonies and churches of Asia, Philadelphia is still erect; a column in a scene of ruins; a pleasing example, that the paths of
honor and safety may sometimes be the same. The servitude
of Rhodes was delayed about two centuries by the establishment of the knights of St. John of Jerusalem:516 under the
discipline of the order, that island emerged into fame and opulence; the noble and warlike monks were renowned by land
and sea: and the bulwark of Christendom provoked, and repelled, the arms of the Turks and Saracens.
The Greeks, by their intestine divisions, were the authors
of their final ruin. During the civil wars of the elder and
younger Andronicus, the son of Othman achieved, almost
without resistance, the conquest of Bithynia; and the same
disorders encouraged the Turkish emirs of Lydia and Ionia
515 See the Travels of Wheeler and Spon, of Pocock and Chandler, and more
particularly Smith’s Survey of the Seven Churches of Asia, p 205–276 The more
pious antiquaries labor to reconcile the promises and threats of the author of
the Revelations with the present state of the seven cities Perhaps it would be
more prudent to confine his predictions to the characters and events of his own
times.
516 Consult the ivth book of the Histoire de l’Ordre de Malthe, par l’Abbé de
Vertot That pleasing writer betrays his ignorance, in supposing that Othman, a
freebooter of the Bithynian hills, could besiege Rhodes by sea and land.
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to build a fleet, and to pillage the adjacent islands and the
sea-coast of Europe. In the defence of his life and honor, Cantacuzene was tempted to prevent, or imitate, his adversaries,
by calling to his aid the public enemies of his religion and
country. Amir, the son of Aidin, concealed under a Turkish
garb the humanity and politeness of a Greek; he was united
with the great domestic by mutual esteem and reciprocal services; and their friendship is compared, in the vain rhetoric
of the times, to the perfect union of Orestes and Pylades.517
On the report of the danger of his friend, who was persecuted by an ungrateful court, the prince of Ionia assembled
at Smyrna a fleet of three hundred vessels, with an army of
twenty-nine thousand men; sailed in the depth of winter, and
cast anchor at the mouth of the Hebrus. From thence, with a
chosen band of two thousand Turks, he marched along the
banks of the river, and rescued the empress, who was besieged in Demotica by the wild Bulgarians. At that disastrous moment, the life or death of his beloved Cantacuzene
was concealed by his flight into Servia: but the grateful Irene,
impatient to behold her deliverer, invited him to enter the
city, and accompanied her message with a present of rich apparel and a hundred horses. By a peculiar strain of delicacy,
the Gentle Barbarian refused, in the absence of an unfortunate friend, to visit his wife, or to taste the luxuries of the
palace; sustained in his tent the rigor of the winter; and rejected the hospitable gift, that he might share the hardships
of two thousand companions, all as deserving as himself of
that honor and distinction. Necessity and revenge might justify his predatory excursions by sea and land: he left nine
thousand five hundred men for the guard of his fleet; and
persevered in the fruitless search of Cantacuzene, till his em517 Nicephorus Gregoras has expatiated with pleasure on this amiable character, (l xii 7, xiii 4, 10, xiv 1, 9, xvi 6) Cantacuzene speaks with honor and esteem
of his ally, (l iii c 56, 57, 63, 64, 66, 67, 68, 86, 89, 95, 96;) but he seems ignorant of
his own sentimental passion for the Turks, and indirectly denies the possibility
of such unnatural friendship, (l iv c 40).
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barkation was hastened by a fictitious letter, the severity of
the season, the clamors of his independent troops, and the
weight of his spoil and captives. In the prosecution of the
civil war, the prince of Ionia twice returned to Europe; joined
his arms with those of the emperor; besieged Thessalonica,
and threatened Constantinople. Calumny might affix some
reproach on his imperfect aid, his hasty departure, and a
bribe of ten thousand crowns, which he accepted from the
Byzantine court; but his friend was satisfied; and the conduct of Amir is excused by the more sacred duty of defending against the Latins his hereditary dominions. The maritime power of the Turks had united the pope, the king of
Cyprus, the republic of Venice, and the order of St. John, in
a laudable crusade; their galleys invaded the coast of Ionia;
and Amir was slain with an arrow, in the attempt to wrest
from the Rhodian knights the citadel of Smyrna.518 Before his
death, he generously recommended another ally of his own
nation; not more sincere or zealous than himself, but more
able to afford a prompt and powerful succor, by his situation along the Propontis and in the front of Constantinople.
By the prospect of a more advantageous treaty, the Turkish
prince of Bithynia was detached from his engagements with
Anne of Savoy; and the pride of Orchan dictated the most
solemn protestations, that if he could obtain the daughter of
Cantacuzene, he would invariably fulfil the duties of a subject and a son. Parental tenderness was silenced by the voice
of ambition: the Greek clergy connived at the marriage of a
Christian princess with a sectary of Mahomet; and the father
of Theodora describes, with shameful satisfaction, the dishonor of the purple.519 A body of Turkish cavalry attended
the ambassadors, who disembarked from thirty vessels, be518 After the conquest of Smyrna by the Latins, the defence of this fortress was
imposed by Pope Gregory XI on the knights of Rhodes, (see Vertot, l v).
519 See Cantacuzenus, l iii c 95 Nicephorus Gregoras, who, for the light of
Mount Thabor, brands the emperor with the names of tyrant and Herod, excuses, rather than blames, this Turkish marriage, and alleges the passion and
power of Orchan, eggutatoV, kai th dunamo? touV kat’ auton hdh PersikouV
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fore his camp of Selybria. A stately pavilion was erected, in
which the empress Irene passed the night with her daughters. In the morning, Theodora ascended a throne, which
was surrounded with curtains of silk and gold: the troops
were under arms; but the emperor alone was on horseback.
At a signal the curtains were suddenly withdrawn to disclose the bride, or the victim, encircled by kneeling eunuchs
and hymeneal torches: the sound of flutes and trumpets proclaimed the joyful event; and her pretended happiness was
the theme of the nuptial song, which was chanted by such
poets as the age could produce. Without the rites of the
church, Theodora was delivered to her barbarous lord: but
it had been stipulated, that she should preserve her religion
in the harem of Bursa; and her father celebrates her charity
and devotion in this ambiguous situation. After his peaceful
establishment on the throne of Constantinople, the Greek emperor visited his Turkish ally, who with four sons, by various
wives, expected him at Scutari, on the Asiatic shore. The two
princes partook, with seeming cordiality, of the pleasures of
the banquet and the chase; and Theodora was permitted to
repass the Bosphorus, and to enjoy some days in the society
of her mother. But the friendship of Orchan was subservient
to his religion and interest; and in the Genoese war he joined
without a blush the enemies of Cantacuzene.
In the treaty with the empress Anne, the Ottoman prince
had inserted a singular condition, that it should be lawful for
him to sell his prisoners at Constantinople, or transport them
into Asia. A naked crowd of Christians of both sexes and every age, of priests and monks, of matrons and virgins, was
exposed in the public market; the whip was frequently used
to quicken the charity of redemption; and the indigent Greeks
deplored the fate of their brethren, who were led away to
the worst evils of temporal and spiritual bondage520 Can(Turkish) uperairwn SatrapaV, (l xv 5) He afterwards celebrates his kingdom
and armies See his reign in Cantemir, p 24–30.
520 The most lively and concise picture of this captivity may be found in the
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tacuzene was reduced to subscribe the same terms; and their
execution must have been still more pernicious to the empire: a body of ten thousand Turks had been detached to
the assistance of the empress Anne; but the entire forces of
Orchan were exerted in the service of his father. Yet these
calamities were of a transient nature; as soon as the storm had
passed away, the fugitives might return to their habitations;
and at the conclusion of the civil and foreign wars, Europe
was completely evacuated by the Moslems of Asia. It was
in his last quarrel with his pupil that Cantacuzene inflicted
the deep and deadly wound, which could never be healed by
his successors, and which is poorly expiated by his theological dialogues against the prophet Mahomet. Ignorant of their
own history, the modern Turks confound their first and their
final passage of the Hellespont,521 and describe the son of
Orchan as a nocturnal robber, who, with eighty companions,
explores by stratagem a hostile and unknown shore. Soliman,
at the head of ten thousand horse, was transported in the vessels, and entertained as the friend, of the Greek emperor. In
the civil wars of Romania, he performed some service and
perpetrated more mischief; but the Chersonesus was insensibly filled with a Turkish colony; and the Byzantine court solicited in vain the restitution of the fortresses of Thrace. After
history of Ducas, (c 8,) who fairly describes what Cantacuzene confesses with a
guilty blush!.
521 In this passage, and the first conquests in Europe, Cantemir (p 27, &c) gives
a miserable idea of his Turkish guides; nor am I much better satisfied with Chalcondyles, (l i p 12, &c) They forget to consult the most authentic record, the ivth
book of Cantacuzene I likewise regret the last books, which are still manuscript,
of Nicephorus Gregoras * Note: Von Hammer excuses the silence with which
the Turkish historians pass over the earlier intercourse of the Ottomans with
the European continent, of which he enumerates sixteen different occasions,
as if they disdained those peaceful incursions by which they gained no conquest, and established no permanent footing on the Byzantine territory Of the
romantic account of Soliman’s first expedition, he says, “As yet the prose of history had not asserted its right over the poetry of tradition” This defence would
scarcely be accepted as satisfactory by the historian of the Decline and Fall–M
(in Quarterly Review, vol xlix p 293).
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some artful delays between the Ottoman prince and his son,
their ransom was valued at sixty thousand crowns, and the
first payment had been made when an earthquake shook the
walls and cities of the provinces; the dismantled places were
occupied by the Turks; and Gallipoli, the key of the Hellespont, was rebuilt and repeopled by the policy of Soliman.
The abdication of Cantacuzene dissolved the feeble bands of
domestic alliance; and his last advice admonished his countrymen to decline a rash contest, and to compare their own
weakness with the numbers and valor, the discipline and enthusiasm, of the Moslems. His prudent counsels were despised by the headstrong vanity of youth, and soon justified
by the victories
of the Ottomans. But as he practised in the field the exercise
of the jerid, Soliman was killed by a fall from his horse; and
the aged Orchan wept and expired on the tomb of his valiant
son.522
522 In
the 75th year of his age, the 35th of his reign V Hammer M.
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Part IV
the Greeks had not time to rejoice in the death of their
B
enemies; and the Turkish cimeter was wielded with the
same spirit by Amurath the First, the son of Orchan, and
UT
the brother of Soliman. By the pale and fainting light of the
Byzantine annals,523 we can discern, that he subdued without resistance the whole province of Romania or Thrace, from
the Hellespont to Mount Hæmus, and the verge of the capital; and that Adrianople was chosen for the royal seat of his
government and religion in Europe. Constantinople, whose
decline is almost coeval with her foundation, had often, in
the lapse of a thousand years, been assaulted by the Barbarians of the East and West; but never till this fatal hour had
the Greeks been surrounded, both in Asia and Europe, by
the arms of the same hostile monarchy. Yet the prudence
or generosity of Amurath postponed for a while this easy
conquest; and his pride was satisfied with the frequent and
humble attendance of the emperor John Palæologus and his
four sons, who followed at his summons the court and camp
of the Ottoman prince. He marched against the Sclavonian
nations between the Danube and the Adriatic, the Bulgarians, Servians, Bosnians, and Albanians; and these warlike
tribes, who had so often insulted the majesty of the empire,
were repeatedly broken by his destructive inroads. Their
countries did not abound either in gold or silver; nor were
their rustic hamlets and townships enriched by commerce or
decorated by the arts of luxury. But the natives of the soil
have been distinguished in every age by their hardiness of
mind and body; and they were converted by a prudent institution into the firmest and most faithful supporters of the
Ottoman greatness.524 The vizier of Amurath reminded his
523 After the conclusion of Cantacuzene and Gregoras, there follows a dark interval of a hundred years George Phranza, Michael Ducas, and Laonicus Chalcondyles, all three wrote after the taking of Constantinople.
524 See Cantemir, p 37–41, with his own large and curious annotations.
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sovereign that, according to the Mahometan law, he was entitled to a fifth part of the spoil and captives; and that the
duty might easily be levied, if vigilant officers were stationed
in Gallipoli, to watch the passage, and to select for his use
the stoutest and most beautiful of the Christian youth. The
advice was followed: the edict was proclaimed; many thousands of the European captives were educated in religion and
arms; and the new militia was consecrated and named by
a celebrated dervis. Standing in the front of their ranks, he
stretched the sleeve of his gown over the head of the foremost
soldier, and his blessing was delivered in these words: “Let
them be called Janizaries, (Yengi cheri, or new soldiers;) may
their countenance be ever bright! their hand victorious! their
sword keen! may their spear always hang over the heads of
their enemies! and wheresoever they go, may they return
with a white face!”525526 Such was the origin of these haughty
troops, the terror of the nations, and sometimes of the sultans themselves. Their valor has declined, their discipline is
relaxed, and their tumultuary array is incapable of contending with the order and weapons of modern tactics; but at the
time of their institution, they possessed a decisive superiority in war; since a regular body of infantry, in constant exercise and pay, was not maintained by any of the princes of
Christendom. The Janizaries fought with the zeal of proselytes against their idolatrous countrymen; and in the battle
of Cossova, the league and independence of the Sclavonian
tribes was finally crushed. As the conqueror walked over the
field, he observed that the greatest part of the slain consisted
of beardless youths; and listened to the flattering reply of his
vizier, that age and wisdom would have taught them not to
525 White and black face are common and proverbial expressions of praise and
reproach in the Turkish language Hic niger est, hunc tu Romane caveto, was
likewise a Latin sentence.
526 According to Von Hammer vol i p 90, Gibbon and the European writers
assign too late a date to this enrolment of the Janizaries It took place not in the
reign of Amurath, but in that of his predecessor Orchan–M.
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PART IV
oppose his irresistible arms. But the sword of his Janizaries
could not defend him from the dagger of despair; a Servian
soldier started from the crowd of dead bodies, and Amurath was pierced in the belly with a mortal wound.527 The
grandson of Othman was mild in his temper, modest in his
apparel, and a lover of learning and virtue; but the Moslems
were scandalized at his absence from public worship; and he
was corrected by the firmness of the mufti, who dared to reject his testimony in a civil cause: a mixture of servitude and
freedom not unfrequent in Oriental history.528
The character of Bajazet, the son and successor of Amurath,
is strongly expressed in his surname of Ilderim, or the lightning; and he might glory in an epithet, which was drawn
from the fiery energy of his soul and the rapidity of his destructive march. In the fourteen years of his reign,529 he incessantly moved at the head of his armies, from Boursa to
Adrianople, from the Danube to the Euphrates; and, though
he strenuously labored for the propagation of the law, he
invaded, with impartial ambition, the Christian and Ma527 Ducas has related this as a deliberate act of self-devotion on the part of a
Servian noble who pretended to desert, and stabbed Amurath during a conference which he had requested The Italian translator of Ducas, published by
Bekker in the new edition of the Byzantines, has still further heightened the
romance See likewise in Von Hammer (Osmanische Geschichte, vol i p 138)
the popular Servian account, which resembles that of Ducas, and may have
been the source of that of his Italian translator The Turkish account agrees more
nearly with Gibbon; but the Servian, (Milosch Kohilovisch) while he lay among
the heap of the dead, pretended to have some secret to impart to Amurath, and
stabbed him while he leaned over to listen–M.
528 See the life and death of Morad, or Amurath I, in Cantemir, (p 33–45,) the
first book of Chalcondyles, and the Annales Turcici of Leunclavius According
to another story, the sultan was stabbed by a Croat in his tent; and this accident
was alleged to Busbequius (Epist i p 98) as an excuse for the unworthy precaution of pinioning, as if were, between two attendants, an ambassador’s arms,
when he is introduced to the royal presence.
529 The reign of Bajazet I, or Ilderim Bayazid, is contained in Cantemir, (p 46,)
the iid book of Chalcondyles, and the Annales Turcici The surname of Ilderim,
or lightning, is an example, that the conquerors and poets of every age have felt
the truth of a system which derives the sublime from the principle of terror.
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PART IV
hometan princes of Europe and Asia. From Angora to Amasia and Erzeroum, the northern regions of Anatolia were reduced to his obedience: he stripped of their hereditary possessions his brother emirs of Ghermian and Caramania, of
Aidin and Sarukhan; and after the conquest of Iconium the
ancient kingdom of the Seljukians again revived in the Ottoman dynasty. Nor were the conquests of Bajazet less rapid
or important in Europe. No sooner had he imposed a regular form of servitude on the Servians and Bulgarians, than
he passed the Danube to seek new enemies and new subjects in the heart of Moldavia.530 Whatever yet adhered to
the Greek empire in Thrace, Macedonia, and Thessaly, acknowledged a Turkish master: an obsequious bishop led him
through the gates of Thermopylæ into Greece; and we may
observe, as a singular fact, that the widow of a Spanish chief,
who possessed the ancient seat of the oracle of Delphi, deserved his favor by the sacrifice of a beauteous daughter. The
Turkish communication between Europe and Asia had been
dangerous and doubtful, till he stationed at Gallipoli a fleet of
galleys, to command the Hellespont and intercept the Latin
succors of Constantinople. While the monarch indulged his
passions in a boundless range of injustice and cruelty, he imposed on his soldiers the most rigid laws of modesty and
abstinence; and the harvest was peaceably reaped and sold
within the precincts of his camp. Provoked by the loose and
corrupt administration of justice, he collected in a house the
judges and lawyers of his dominions, who expected that in
a few moments the fire would be kindled to reduce them to
ashes. His ministers trembled in silence: but an Æthiopian
buffoon presumed to insinuate the true cause of the evil; and
future venality was left without excuse, by annexing an adequate salary to the office of cadhi.531 The humble title of emir
530 Cantemir, who celebrates the victories of the great Stephen over the Turks,
(p 47,) had composed the ancient and modern state of his principality of Moldavia, which has been long promised, and is still unpublished.
531 Leunclav Annal Turcici, p 318, 319 The venality of the cadhis has long
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PART IV
was no longer suitable to the Ottoman greatness; and Bajazet
condescended to accept a patent of sultan from the caliphs
who served in Egypt under the yoke of the Mamalukes:532 a
last and frivolous homage that was yielded by force to opinion; by the Turkish conquerors to the house of Abbas and the
successors of the Arabian prophet. The ambition of the sultan
was inflamed by the obligation of deserving this august title;
and he turned his arms against the kingdom of Hungary, the
perpetual theatre of the Turkish victories and defeats. Sigismond, the Hungarian king, was the son and brother of the
emperors of the West: his cause was that of Europe and the
church; and, on the report of his danger, the bravest knights
of France and Germany were eager to march under his standard and that of the cross. In the battle of Nicopolis, Bajazet
defeated a confederate army of a hundred thousand Christians, who had proudly boasted, that if the sky should fall,
they could uphold it on their lances. The far greater part were
slain or driven into the Danube; and Sigismond, escaping to
Constantinople by the river and the Black Sea, returned after a long circuit to his exhausted kingdom.533 In the pride
of victory, Bajazet threatened that he would besiege Buda;
that he would subdue the adjacent countries of Germany and
Italy, and that he would feed his horse with a bushel of oats
on the altar of St. Peter at Rome. His progress was checked,
not by the miraculous interposition of the apostle, not by a
crusade of the Christian powers, but by a long and painful fit
been an object of scandal and satire; and if we distrust the observations of our
travellers, we may consult the feeling of the Turks themselves, (D’Herbelot,
Bibliot Orientale, p 216, 217, 229, 230).
532 The fact, which is attested by the Arabic history of Ben Schounah, a contemporary Syrian, (De Guignes Hist des Huns tom iv p 336) destroys the testimony of Saad Effendi and Cantemir, (p 14, 15,) of the election of Othman to the
dignity of sultan.
533 See the Decades Rerum Hungaricarum (Dec iii l ii p 379) of Bonfinius,
an Italian, who, in the xvth century, was invited into Hungary to compose an
eloquent history of that kingdom Yet, if it be extant and accessible, I should
give the preference to some homely chronicle of the time and country.
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PART IV
of the gout. The disorders of the moral, are sometimes corrected by those of the physical, world; and an acrimonious
humor falling on a single fibre of one man, may prevent or
suspend the misery of nations.
Such is the general idea of the Hungarian war; but the disastrous adventure of the French has procured us some memorials which illustrate the victory and character of Bajazet.534
The duke of Burgundy, sovereign of Flanders, and uncle of
Charles the Sixth, yielded to the ardor of his son, John count
of Nevers; and the fearless youth was accompanied by four
princes, his cousins, and those of the French monarch. Their
inexperience was guided by the Sire de Coucy, one of the
best and oldest captain of Christendom;535 but the constable, admiral, and marshal of France536 commanded an army
which did not exceed the number of a thousand knights and
squires.537 These splendid names were the source of pre534 I should not complain of the labor of this work, if my materials were always derived from such books as the chronicle of honest Froissard, (vol iv c 67,
72, 74, 79–83, 85, 87, 89,) who read little, inquired much, and believed all The
original Mémoires of the Maréchal de Boucicault (Partie i c 22–28) add some
facts, but they are dry and deficient, if compared with the pleasant garrulity of
Froissard.
535 An accurate Memoir on the Life of Enguerrand VII, Sire de Coucy, has been
given by the Baron de Zurlauben, (Hist de l’Académie des Inscriptions, tom
xxv) His rank and possessions were equally considerable in France and England; and, in 1375, he led an army of adventurers into Switzerland, to recover
a large patrimony which he claimed in right of his grandmother, the daughter
of the emperor Albert I of Austria, (Sinner, Voyage dans la Suisse Occidentale,
tom i p 118–124).
536 That military office, so respectable at present, was still more conspicuous
when it was divided between two persons, (Daniel, Hist de la Milice Françoise,
tom ii p 5) One of these, the marshal of the crusade, was the famous Boucicault,
who afterwards defended Constantinople, governed Genoa, invaded the coast
of Asia, and died in the field of Azincour.
537 Daru, Hist de Venice, vol ii p 104, makes the whole French army amount to
10,000 men, of whom 1000 were knights The curious volume of Schiltberger, a
German of Munich, who was taken prisoner in the battle, (edit Munich, 1813,)
and which V Hammer receives as authentic, gives the whole number at 6000
See Schiltberger Reise in dem Orient and V Hammer, note, p 610–M.
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sumption and the bane of discipline. So many might aspire
to command, that none were willing to obey; their national
spirit despised both their enemies and their allies; and in the
persuasion that Bajazet would fly, or must fall, they began to
compute how soon they should visit Constantinople and deliver the holy sepulchre. When their scouts announced the
approach of the Turks, the gay and thoughtless youths were
at table, already heated with wine; they instantly clasped
their armor, mounted their horses, rode full speed to the vanguard, and resented as an affront the advice of Sigismond,
which would have deprived them of the right and honor of
the foremost attack. The battle of Nicopolis would not have
been lost, if the French would have obeyed the prudence of
the Hungarians; but it might have been gloriously won, had
the Hungarians imitated the valor of the French. They dispersed the first line, consisting of the troops of Asia; forced
a rampart of stakes, which had been planted against the cavalry; broke, after a bloody conflict, the Janizaries themselves;
and were at length overwhelmed by the numerous squadrons
that issued from the woods, and charged on all sides this
handful of intrepid warriors. In the speed and secrecy of
his march, in the order and evolutions of the battle, his enemies felt and admired the military talents of Bajazet. They
accuse his cruelty in the use of victory. After reserving the
count of Nevers, and four-and-twenty lords,538 whose birth
and riches were attested by his Latin interpreters, the remainder of the French captives, who had survived the slaughter
of the day, were led before his throne; and, as they refused
to abjure their faith, were successively beheaded in his presence. The sultan was exasperated by the loss of his bravest
Janizaries; and if it be true, that, on the eve of the engagement, the French had massacred their Turkish prisoners,539
538 According to Schiltberger there were only twelve French lords granted to
the prayer of the “duke of Burgundy,” and “Herr Stephan Synther, and Johann
von Bodem” Schiltberger, p 13–M.
539 For this odious fact, the Abbé de Vertot quotes the Hist Anonyme de St
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they might impute to themselves the consequences of a just
retaliation.540 A knight, whose life had been spared, was permitted to return to Paris, that he might relate the deplorable
tale, and solicit the ransom of the noble captives. In the mean
while, the count of Nevers, with the princes and barons of
France, were dragged along in the marches of the Turkish
camp, exposed as a grateful trophy to the Moslems of Europe and Asia, and strictly confined at Boursa, as often as Bajazet resided in his capital. The sultan was pressed each day
to expiate with their blood the blood of his martyrs; but he
had pronounced that they should live, and either for mercy
or destruction his word was irrevocable. He was assured of
their value and importance by the return of the messenger,
and the gifts and intercessions of the kings of France and of
Cyprus. Lusignan presented him with a gold saltcellar of curious workmanship, and of the price of ten thousand ducats;
and Charles the Sixth despatched by the way of Hungary a
cast of Norwegian hawks, and six horse-loads of scarlet cloth,
of fine linen of Rheims, and of Arras tapestry, representing
the battles of the great Alexander. After much delay, the effect of distance rather than of art, Bajazet agreed to accept
a ransom of two hundred thousand ducats for the count of
Nevers and the surviving princes and barons: the marshal
Boucicault, a famous warrior, was of the number of the fortunate; but the admiral of France had been slain in battle; and
the constable, with the Sire de Coucy, died in the prison of
Boursa. This heavy demand, which was doubled by incidental costs, fell chiefly on the duke of Burgundy, or rather on his
Flemish subjects, who were bound by the feudal laws to conDenys, l xvi c 10, 11 (Ordre de Malthe, tom ii p 310).
540 See Schiltberger’s very graphic account of the massacre He was led out to
be slaughtered in cold blood with the rest f the Christian prisoners, amounting
to 10,000 He was spared at the intercession of the son of Bajazet, with a few
others, on account of their extreme youth No one under 20 years of age was
put to death The “duke of Burgundy” was obliged to be a spectator of this
butchery which lasted from early in the morning till four o’clock, P M It ceased
only at the supplication of the leaders of Bajazet’s army Schiltberger, p 14–M.
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tribute for the knighthood and captivity of the eldest son of
their lord. For the faithful discharge of the debt, some merchants of Genoa gave security to the amount of five times
the sum; a lesson to those warlike times, that commerce and
credit are the links of the society of nations. It had been stipulated in the treaty, that the French captives should swear
never to bear arms against the person of their conqueror; but
the ungenerous restraint was abolished by Bajazet himself.
“I despise,” said he to the heir of Burgundy, “thy oaths and
thy arms. Thou art young, and mayest be ambitious of effacing the disgrace or misfortune of thy first chivalry. Assemble
thy powers, proclaim thy design, and be assured that Bajazet
will rejoice to meet thee a second time in a field of battle.” Before their departure, they were indulged in the freedom and
hospitality of the court of Boursa. The French princes admired the magnificence of the Ottoman, whose hunting and
hawking equipage was composed of seven thousand huntsmen and seven thousand falconers.541 In their presence, and
at his command, the belly of one of his chamberlains was cut
open, on a complaint against him for drinking the goat’s milk
of a poor woman. The strangers were astonished by this act
of justice; but it was the justice of a sultan who disdains to
balance the weight of evidence, or to measure the degrees of
guilt.
After his enfranchisement from an oppressive guardian,
John Palæologus remained thirty-six years, the helpless, and,
as it should seem, the careless spectator of the public ruin.542
Love, or rather lust, was his only vigorous passion; and in
541 Sherefeddin Ali (Hist de Timour Bec, l v c 13) allows Bajazet a round number of 12,000 officers and servants of the chase A part of his spoils was afterwards displayed in a hunting-match of Timour, l hounds with satin housings; 2
leopards with collars set with jewels; 3 Grecian greyhounds; and 4, dogs from
Europe, as strong as African lions, (idem, l vi c 15) Bajazet was particularly fond
of flying his hawks at cranes, (Chalcondyles, l ii p 85).
542 For the reigns of John Palæologus and his son Manuel, from 1354 to 1402,
see Ducas, c 9–15, Phranza, l i c 16–21, and the ist and iid books of Chalcondyles,
whose proper subject is drowned in a sea of episode.
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the embraces of the wives and virgins of the city, the Turkish
slave forgot the dishonor of the emperor of the Romans Andronicus, his eldest son, had formed, at Adrianople, an intimate and guilty friendship with Sauzes, the son of Amurath;
and the two youths conspired against the authority and lives
of their parents. The presence of Amurath in Europe soon
discovered and dissipated their rash counsels; and, after depriving Sauzes of his sight, the Ottoman threatened his vassal
with the treatment of an accomplice and an enemy, unless he
inflicted a similar punishment on his own son. Palæologus
trembled and obeyed; and a cruel precaution involved in the
same sentence the childhood and innocence of John, the son
of the criminal. But the operation was so mildly, or so unskilfully, performed, that the one retained the sight of an eye,
and the other was afflicted only with the infirmity of squinting. Thus excluded from the succession, the two princes were
confined in the tower of Anema; and the piety of Manuel, the
second son of the reigning monarch, was rewarded with the
gift of the Imperial crown. But at the end of two years, the
turbulence of the Latins and the levity of the Greeks, produced a revolution;543 and the two emperors were buried
in the tower from whence the two prisoners were exalted to
the throne. Another period of two years afforded Palæologus and Manuel the means of escape: it was contrived by
the magic or subtlety of a monk, who was alternately named
the angel or the devil: they fled to Scutari; their adherents
armed in their cause; and the two Byzantine factions displayed the ambition and animosity with which Cæsar and
Pompey had disputed the empire of the world. The Roman
world was now contracted to a corner of Thrace, between the
Propontis and the Black Sea, about fifty miles in length and
thirty in breadth; a space of ground not more extensive than
the lesser principalities of Germany or Italy, if the remains
of Constantinople had not still represented the wealth and
543 According
to Von Hammer it was the power of Bajazet, vol i p 218.
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PART IV
populousness of a kingdom. To restore the public peace, it
was found necessary to divide this fragment of the empire;
and while Palæologus and Manuel were left in possession of
the capital, almost all that lay without the walls was ceded
to the blind princes, who fixed their residence at Rhodosto
and Selybria. In the tranquil slumber of royalty, the passions
of John Palæologus survived his reason and his strength: he
deprived his favorite and heir of a blooming princess of Trebizond; and while the feeble emperor labored to consummate
his nuptials, Manuel, with a hundred of the noblest Greeks,
was sent on a peremptory summons to the Ottoman porte.
They served with honor in the wars of Bajazet; but a plan of
fortifying Constantinople excited his jealousy: he threatened
their lives; the new works were instantly demolished; and we
shall bestow a praise, perhaps above the merit of Palæologus,
if we impute this last humiliation as the cause of his death.
The earliest intelligence of that event was communicated
to Manuel, who escaped with speed and secrecy from the
palace of Boursa to the Byzantine throne. Bajazet affected
a proud indifference at the loss of this valuable pledge; and
while he pursued his conquests in Europe and Asia, he left
the emperor to struggle with his blind cousin John of Selybria, who, in eight years of civil war, asserted his right of primogeniture. At length, the ambition of the victorious sultan
pointed to the conquest of Constantinople; but he listened to
the advice of his vizier, who represented that such an enterprise might unite the powers of Christendom in a second and
more formidable crusade. His epistle to the emperor was conceived in these words: “By the divine clemency, our invincible cimeter has reduced to our obedience almost all Asia,
with many and large countries in Europe, excepting only the
city of Constantinople; for beyond the walls thou hast nothing left. Resign that city; stipulate thy reward; or tremble,
for thyself and thy unhappy people, at the consequences of a
rash refusal.” But his ambassadors were instructed to soften
their tone, and to propose a treaty, which was subscribed
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with submission and gratitude. A truce of ten years was
purchased by an annual tribute of thirty thousand crowns
of gold; the Greeks deplored the public toleration of the law
of Mahomet, and Bajazet enjoyed the glory of establishing a
Turkish cadhi, and founding a royal mosque in the metropolis of the Eastern church.544 Yet this truce was soon violated
by the restless sultan: in the cause of the prince of Selybria,
the lawful emperor, an army of Ottomans again threatened
Constantinople; and the distress of Manuel implored the protection of the king of France. His plaintive embassy obtained
much pity and some relief; and the conduct of the succor
was intrusted to the marshal Boucicault,545 whose religious
chivalry was inflamed by the desire of revenging his captivity on the infidels. He sailed with four ships of war, from
Aiguesmortes to the Hellespont; forced the passage, which
was guarded by seventeen Turkish galleys; landed at Constantinople a supply of six hundred men-at-arms and sixteen
hundred archers; and reviewed them in the adjacent plain,
without condescending to number or array the multitude of
Greeks. By his presence, the blockade was raised both by sea
and land; the flying squadrons of Bajazet were driven to a
more respectful distance; and several castles in Europe and
Asia were stormed by the emperor and the marshal, who
fought with equal valor by each other’s side. But the Ottomans soon returned with an increase of numbers; and the
intrepid Boucicault, after a year’s struggle, resolved to evacuate a country which could no longer afford either pay or
provisions for his soldiers. The marshal offered to conduct
Manuel to the French court, where he might solicit in person
a supply of men and money; and advised, in the mean while,
that, to extinguish all domestic discord, he should leave his
blind competitor on the throne. The proposal was embraced:
544 Cantemir, p 50–53 Of the Greeks, Ducas alone (c 13, 15) acknowledges the
Turkish cadhi at Constantinople Yet even Ducas dissembles the mosque.
545 Mémoires du bon Messire Jean le Maingre, dit Boucicault, Maréchal de
France, partie ire c 30, 35.
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the prince of Selybria was introduced to the capital; and such
was the public misery, that the lot of the exile seemed more
fortunate than that of the sovereign. Instead of applauding
the success of his vassal, the Turkish sultan claimed the city
as his own; and on the refusal of the emperor John, Constantinople was more closely pressed by the calamities of war
and famine. Against such an enemy prayers and resistance
were alike unavailing; and the savage would have devoured
his prey, if, in the fatal moment, he had not been overthrown
by another savage stronger than himself. By the victory of
Timour or Tamerlane, the fall of Constantinople was delayed
about fifty years; and this important, though accidental, service may justly introduce the life and character of the Mogul
conqueror.
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Chapter LXV
E LEVATION O F T IMOUR O R TAMERLANE ,
A ND H IS D EATH
Part I
Elevation Of Timour Or Tamerlane
To The Throne Of Samarcand.–
His Conquests In Persia, Georgia, Tartary Russia,
India, Syria, And Anatolia.–
His Turkish War.–
Defeat And Captivity Of Bajazet.–
Death Of Timour.–
Civil War Of The Sons Of Bajazet.–
Restoration Of The Turkish Monarchy By Mahomet The First.–
Siege Of Constantinople By
Amurath The Second.
conquest and monarchy of the world was the first obT
ject of the ambition of Timour. To live in the memory and
esteem of future ages was the second wish of his magnaniHE
mous spirit. All the civil and military transactions of his reign
were diligently recorded in the journals of his secretaries:546
the authentic narrative was revised by the persons best informed of each particular transaction; and it is believed in the
empire and family of Timour, that the monarch himself com546 These journals were communicated to Sherefeddin, or Cherefeddin Ali,
a native of Yezd, who composed in the Persian language a history of Timour
Beg, which has been translated into French by M Petit de la Croix, (Paris, 1722,
in 4 vols 12 mo,) and has always been my faithful guide His geography and
chronology are wonderfully accurate; and he may be trusted for public facts,
though he servilely praises the virtue and fortune of the hero Timour’s attention to procure intelligence from his own and foreign countries may be seen in
the Institutions, p 215, 217, 349, 351.
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PART I
posed the commentaries547 of his life, and the institutions548
of his government.549 But these cares were ineffectual for the
preservation of his fame, and these precious memorials in the
Mogul or Persian language were concealed from the world,
or, at least, from the knowledge of Europe. The nations which
he vanquished exercised a base and impotent revenge; and
ignorance has long repeated the tale of calumny,550 which
547 These Commentaries are yet unknown in Europe: but Mr White gives
some hope that they may be imported and translated by his friend Major Davy,
who had read in the East this “minute and faithful narrative of an interesting
and eventful period” * Note: The manuscript of Major Davy has been translated by Major Stewart, and published by the Oriental Translation Committee
of London It contains the life of Timour, from his birth to his forty-first year; but
the last thirty years of western war and conquest are wanting Major Stewart intimates that two manuscripts exist in this country containing the whole work,
but excuses himself, on account of his age, from undertaking the laborious task
of completing the translation It is to be hoped that the European public will be
soon enabled to judge of the value and authenticity of the Commentaries of the
Cæsar of the East Major Stewart’s work commences with the Book of Dreams
and Omens–a wild, but characteristic, chronicle of Visions and Sortes Koranicæ Strange that a life of Timour should awaken a reminiscence of the diary of
Archbishop Laud! The early dawn and the gradual expression of his not less
splendid but more real visions of ambition are touched with the simplicity of
truth and nature But we long to escape from the petty feuds of the pastoral
chieftain, to the triumphs and the legislation of the conqueror of the world–M.
548 I am ignorant whether the original institution, in the Turki or Mogul language, be still extant The Persic version, with an English translation, and most
valuable index, was published (Oxford, 1783, in 4to) by the joint labors of Major
Davy and Mr White, the Arabic professor This work has been since translated
from the Persic into French, (Paris, 1787,) by M Langlès, a learned Orientalist,
who has added the life of Timour, and many curious notes.
549 Shaw Allum, the present Mogul, reads, values, but cannot imitate, the institutions of his great ancestor The English translator relies on their internal
evidence; but if any suspicions should arise of fraud and fiction, they will not
be dispelled by Major Davy’s letter The Orientals have never cultivated the art
of criticism; the patronage of a prince, less honorable, perhaps, is not less lucrative than that of a bookseller; nor can it be deemed incredible that a Persian,
the real author, should renounce the credit, to raise the value and price, of the
work.
550 The original of the tale is found in the following work, which is much esteemed for its florid elegance of style: Ahmedis Arabsiad (Ahmed Ebn Arabshah)
Vitæ et Rerum gestarum Timuri Arabice et Latine Edidit Samuel Henricus Manger
Franequer, 1767, 2 tom in 4to This Syrian author is ever a malicious, and often an
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had disfigured the birth and character, the person, and even
the name, of Tamerlane.551 Yet his real merit would be enhanced, rather than debased, by the elevation of a peasant
to the throne of Asia; nor can his lameness be a theme of reproach, unless he had the weakness to blush at a natural, or
perhaps an honorable, infirmity.552
In the eyes of the Moguls, who held the indefeasible succession of the house of Zingis, he was doubtless a rebel subject; yet he sprang from the noble tribe of Berlass: his fifth
ancestor, Carashar Nevian, had been the vizier553 of Zagatai,
in his new realm of Transoxiana; and in the ascent of some
generations, the branch of Timour is confounded, at least
by the females,554 with the Imperial stem.555 He was born
ignorant enemy: the very titles of his chapters are injurious; as how the wicked,
as how the impious, as how the viper, &c The copious article of Timur, in Bibliothèque Orientale, is of a mixed nature, as D’Herbelot indifferently draws his
materials (p 877–888) from Khondemir Ebn Schounah, and the Lebtarikh.
551 Demir or Timour signifies in the Turkish language, Iron; and it is the appellation of a lord or prince By the change of a letter or accent, it is changed
into Lenc, or Lame; and a European corruption confounds the two words in the
name of Tamerlane * Note: According to the memoirs he was so called by a
Shaikh, who, when visited by his mother on his birth, was reading the verse
of the Koran, ‘Are you sure that he who dwelleth in heaven will not cause the
earth to swallow you up, and behold it shall shake, Tamûrn” The Shaikh then
stopped and said, “We have named your son Timûr,” p 21–M.
552 He was lamed by a wound at the siege of the capital of Sistan Sherefeddin,
lib iii c 17 p 136 See Von Hammer, vol i p 260–M.
553 In the memoirs, the title Gurgân is in one place (p 23) interpreted the sonin-law; in another (p 28) as Kurkan, great prince, generalissimo, and prime
minister of Jagtai–M.
554 After relating some false and foolish tales of Timour Lenc, Arabshah is
compelled to speak truth, and to own him for a kinsman of Zingis, per mulieres,
(as he peevishly adds,) laqueos Satanæ, (pars i c i p 25) The testimony of Abulghazi Khan (P ii c 5, P v c 4) is clear, unquestionable, and decisive.
555 According to one of the pedigrees, the fourth ancestor of Zingis, and the
ninth of Timour, were brothers; and they agreed, that the posterity of the elder
should succeed to the dignity of khan, and that the descendants of the younger
should fill the office of their minister and general This tradition was at least
convenient to justify the first steps of Timour’s ambition, (Institutions, p 24, 25,
from the MS fragments of Timour’s History).
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PART I
forty miles to the south of Samarcand in the village of Sebzar, in the fruitful territory of Cash, of which his fathers
were the hereditary chiefs, as well as of a toman of ten thousand horse.556 His birth557 was cast on one of those periods
of anarchy, which announce the fall of the Asiatic dynasties,
and open a new field to adventurous ambition. The khans
of Zagatai were extinct; the emirs aspired to independence;
and their domestic feuds could only be suspended by the
conquest and tyranny of the khans of Kashgar, who, with an
army of Getes or Calmucks,558 invaded the Transoxian kingdom. From the twelfth year of his age, Timour had entered
the field of action; in the twenty-fifth559 he stood forth as the
556 See the preface of Sherefeddin, and Abulfeda’s Geography, (Chorasmiæ,
&c, Descriptio, p 60, 61,) in the iiid volume of Hudson’s Minor Greek Geographers.
557 See his nativity in Dr Hyde, (Syntagma Dissertat tom ii p 466,) as it was
cast by the astrologers of his grandson Ulugh Beg He was born, AD 1336, April
9, 11o 57’ p m, lat 36 I know not whether they can prove the great conjunction of
the planets from whence, like other conquerors and prophets, Timour derived
the surname of Saheb Keran, or master of the conjunctions, (Bibliot Orient p
878).
558 In the Institutions of Timour, these subjects of the khan of Kashgar are
most improperly styled Ouzbegs, or Usbeks, a name which belongs to another
branch and country of Tartars, (Abulghazi, P v c v P vii c 5) Could I be sure
that this word is in the Turkish original, I would boldly pronounce, that the
Institutions were framed a century after the death of Timour, since the establishment of the Usbeks in Transoxiana * Note: Col Stewart observes, that the
Persian translator has sometimes made use of the name Uzbek by anticipation
He observes, likewise, that these Jits (Getes) are not to be confounded with the
ancient Getæ: they were unconverted Turks Col Tod (History of Rajasthan, vol
i p 166) would identify the Jits with the ancient race–M.
559 He was twenty-seven before he served his first wars under the emir Houssein, who ruled over Khorasan and Mawerainnehr Von Hammer, vol i p 262
Neither of these statements agrees with the Memoirs At twelve he was a boy
“I fancied that I perceived in myself all the signs of greatness and wisdom, and
whoever came to visit me, I received with great hauteur and dignity” At seventeen he undertook the management of the flocks and herds of the family, (p 24)
At nineteen he became religious, and “left off playing chess,” made a kind of
Budhist vow never to injure living thing and felt his foot paralyzed from having accidentally trod upon an ant, (p 30) At twenty, thoughts of rebellion and
greatness rose in his mind; at twenty-one, he seems to have performed his first
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PART I
deliverer of his country; and the eyes and wishes of the people were turned towards a hero who suffered in their cause.
The chiefs of the law and of the army had pledged their salvation to support him with their lives and fortunes; but in
the hour of danger they were silent and afraid; and, after
waiting seven days on the hills of Samarcand, he retreated
to the desert with only sixty horsemen. The fugitives were
overtaken by a thousand Getes, whom he repulsed with incredible slaughter, and his enemies were forced to exclaim,
“Timour is a wonderful man: fortune and the divine favor
are with him.” But in this bloody action his own followers
were reduced to ten, a number which was soon diminished
by the desertion of three Carizmians.560 He wandered in
the desert with his wife, seven companions, and four horses;
and sixty-two days was he plunged in a loathsome dungeon,
from whence he escaped by his own courage and the remorse
of the oppressor. After swimming the broad and rapid steam
of the Jihoon, or Oxus, he led, during some months, the life
of a vagrant and outlaw, on the borders of the adjacent states.
But his fame shone brighter in adversity; he learned to distinguish the friends of his person, the associates of his fortune, and to apply the various characters of men for their advantage, and, above all, for his own. On his return to his
native country, Timour was successively joined by the parties of his confederates, who anxiously sought him in the
desert; nor can I refuse to describe, in his pathetic simplicity, one of their fortunate encounters. He presented himself
as a guide to three chiefs, who were at the head of seventy
horse. “When their eyes fell upon me,” says Timour, “they
were overwhelmed with joy; and they alighted from their
horses; and they came and kneeled; and they kissed my stirfeat of arms He was a practised warrior when he served, in his twenty-seventh
year, under Emir Houssein.
560 Compare Memoirs, page 61 The imprisonment is there stated at fifty-three
days “At this time I made a vow to God that I would never keep any person,
whether guilty or innocent, for any length of time, in prison or in chains” p
63–M.
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PART I
rup. I also came down from my horse, and took each of them
in my arms. And I put my turban on the head of the first
chief; and my girdle, rich in jewels and wrought with gold, I
bound on the loins of the second; and the third I clothed in
my own coat. And they wept, and I wept also; and the hour
of prayer was arrived, and we prayed. And we mounted our
horses, and came to my dwelling; and I collected my people, and made a feast.” His trusty bands were soon increased
by the bravest of the tribes; he led them against a superior
foe; and, after some vicissitudes of war the Getes were finally
driven from the kingdom of Transoxiana. He had done much
for his own glory; but much remained to be done, much art to
be exerted, and some blood to be spilt, before he could teach
his equals to obey him as their master. The birth and power of
emir Houssein compelled him to accept a vicious and unworthy colleague, whose sister was the best beloved of his wives.
Their union was short and jealous; but the policy of Timour,
in their frequent quarrels, exposed his rival to the reproach of
injustice and perfidy; and, after a final defeat, Houssein was
slain by some sagacious friends, who presumed, for the last
time, to disobey the commands of their lord.561 At the age of
thirty-four,562 and in a general diet or couroultai, he was invested with Imperial command, but he affected to revere the
house of Zingis; and while the emir Timour reigned over Zagatai and the East, a nominal khan served as a private officer
in the armies of his servant. A fertile kingdom, five hundred
miles in length and in breadth, might have satisfied the ambition of a subject; but Timour aspired to the dominion of the
561 Timour, on one occasion, sent him this message: “He who wishes to embrace the bride of royalty must kiss her across the edge of the sharp sword,”
p 83 The scene of the trial of Houssein, the resistance of Timour gradually becoming more feeble, the vengeance of the chiefs becoming proportionably more
determined, is strikingly portrayed Mem p 130–M.
562 The ist book of Sherefeddin is employed on the private life of the hero: and
he himself, or his secretary, (Institutions, p 3–77,) enlarges with pleasure on the
thirteen designs and enterprises which most truly constitute his personal merit
It even shines through the dark coloring of Arabshah, (P i c 1–12).
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PART I
world; and before his death, the crown of Zagatai was one of
the twenty-seven crowns which he had placed on his head.
Without expatiating on the victories of thirty-five campaigns;
without describing the lines of march, which he repeatedly
traced over the continent of Asia; I shall briefly represent his
conquests in, I. Persia, II. Tartary, and, III. India,563 and from
thence proceed to the more interesting narrative of his Ottoman war.
I. For every war, a motive of safety or revenge, of honor
or zeal, of right or convenience, may be readily found in
the jurisprudence of conquerors. No sooner had Timour reunited to the patrimony of Zagatai the dependent countries
of Carizme and Candahar, than he turned his eyes towards
the kingdoms of Iran or Persia. From the Oxus to the Tigris,
that extensive country was left without a lawful sovereign
since the death of Abousaid, the last of the descendants of the
great Holacou. Peace and justice had been banished from the
land above forty years; and the Mogul invader might seem to
listen to the cries of an oppressed people. Their petty tyrants
might have opposed him with confederate arms: they separately stood, and successively fell; and the difference of their
fate was only marked by the promptitude of submission or
the obstinacy of resistance. Ibrahim, prince of Shirwan, or Albania, kissed the footstool of the Imperial throne. His peaceofferings of silks, horses, and jewels, were composed, according to the Tartar fashion, each article of nine pieces; but a
critical spectator observed, that there were only eight slaves.
“I myself am the ninth,” replied Ibrahim, who was prepared
for the remark; and his flattery was rewarded by the smile
of Timour.564 Shah Mansour, prince of Fars, or the proper
563 The conquests of Persia, Tartary, and India, are represented in the iid and
iiid books of Sherefeddin, and by Arabshah, (c 13–55) Consult the excellent
Indexes to the Institutions * Note: Compare the seventh book of Von Hammer,
Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches–M.
564 The reverence of the Tartars for the mysterious number of nine is declared
by Abulghazi Khan, who, for that reason, divides his Genealogical History into
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Persia, was one of the least powerful, but most dangerous, of
his enemies. In a battle under the walls of Shiraz, he broke,
with three or four thousand soldiers, the coul or main body of
thirty thousand horse, where the emperor fought in person.
No more than fourteen or fifteen guards remained near the
standard of Timour: he stood firm as a rock, and received on
his helmet two weighty strokes of a cimeter:565 the Moguls
rallied; the head of Mansour was thrown at his feet; and he
declared his esteem of the valor of a foe, by extirpating all
the males of so intrepid a race. From Shiraz, his troops advanced to the Persian Gulf; and the richness and weakness
of Ormuz566 were displayed in an annual tribute of six hundred thousand dinars of gold. Bagdad was no longer the city
of peace, the seat of the caliphs; but the noblest conquest of
Holacou could not be overlooked by his ambitious successor. The whole course of the Tigris and Euphrates, from the
mouth to the sources of those rivers, was reduced to his obedience: he entered Edessa; and the Turkmans of the black
sheep were chastised for the sacrilegious pillage of a caravan
of Mecca. In the mountains of Georgia, the native Christians
still braved the law and the sword of Mahomet, by three expeditions he obtained the merit of the gazie, or holy war; and
the prince of Teflis became his proselyte and friend.
nine parts.
565 According to Arabshah, (P i c 28, p 183,) the coward Timour ran away to
his tent, and hid himself from the pursuit of Shah Mansour under the women’s
garments Perhaps Sherefeddin (l iii c 25) has magnified his courage.
566 The history of Ormuz is not unlike that of Tyre The old city, on the continent, was destroyed by the Tartars, and renewed in a neighboring island, without fresh water or vegetation The kings of Ormuz, rich in the Indian trade and
the pearl fishery, possessed large territories both in Persia and Arabia; but they
were at first the tributaries of the sultans of Kerman, and at last were delivered
(AD 1505) by the Portuguese tyrants from the tyranny of their own viziers,
(Marco Polo, l i c 15, 16, fol 7, 8 Abulfeda, Geograph tabul xi p 261, 262, an
original Chronicle of Ormuz, in Texeira, or Stevens’s History of Persia, p 376–
416, and the Itineraries inserted in the ist volume of Ramusio, of Ludovico
Barthema, (1503,) fol 167, of Andrea Corsali, (1517) fol 202, 203, and of Odoardo
Barbessa, (in 1516,) fol 313–318).
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II. A just retaliation might be urged for the invasion of
Turkestan, or the Eastern Tartary. The dignity of Timour
could not endure the impunity of the Getes: he passed
the Sihoon, subdued the kingdom of Kashgar, and marched
seven times into the heart of their country. His most distant
camp was two months’ journey, or four hundred and eighty
leagues to the north-east of Samarcand; and his emirs, who
traversed the River Irtish, engraved in the forests of Siberia
a rude memorial of their exploits. The conquest of Kipzak,
or the Western Tartary,567 was founded on the double motive
of aiding the distressed, and chastising the ungrateful. Toctamish, a fugitive prince, was entertained and protected in
his court: the ambassadors of Auruss Khan were dismissed
with a haughty denial, and followed on the same day by the
armies of Zagatai; and their success established Toctamish
in the Mogul empire of the North. But, after a reign of ten
years, the new khan forgot the merits and the strength of
his benefactor; the base usurper, as he deemed him, of the
sacred rights of the house of Zingis. Through the gates of
Derbend, he entered Persia at the head of ninety thousand
horse: with the innumerable forces of Kipzak, Bulgaria, Circassia, and Russia, he passed the Sihoon, burnt the palaces
of Timour, and compelled him, amidst the winter snows, to
contend for Samarcand and his life. After a mild expostulation, and a glorious victory, the emperor resolved on revenge;
and by the east, and the west, of the Caspian, and the Volga,
he twice invaded Kipzak with such mighty powers, that thirteen miles were measured from his right to his left wing. In
a march of five months, they rarely beheld the footsteps of
man; and their daily subsistence was often trusted to the fortune of the chase. At length the armies encountered each
other; but the treachery of the standard-bearer, who, in the
heat of action, reversed the Imperial standard of Kipzak, determined the victory of the Zagatais; and Toctamish (I peak
567 Arabshah had travelled into Kipzak, and acquired a singular knowledge
of the geography, cities, and revolutions, of that northern region, (P i c 45–49).
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the language of the Institutions) gave the tribe of Toushi to
the wind of desolation.568 He fled to the Christian duke of
Lithuania; again returned to the banks of the Volga; and, after fifteen battles with a domestic rival, at last perished in the
wilds of Siberia. The pursuit of a flying enemy carried Timour into the tributary provinces of Russia: a duke of the reigning family was made prisoner amidst the ruins of his capital;
and Yeletz, by the pride and ignorance of the Orientals, might
easily be confounded with the genuine metropolis of the nation. Moscow trembled at the approach of the Tartar, and
the resistance would have been feeble, since the hopes of the
Russians were placed in a miraculous image of the Virgin, to
whose protection they ascribed the casual and voluntary retreat of the conqueror. Ambition and prudence recalled him
to the South, the desolate country was exhausted, and the
Mogul soldiers were enriched with an immense spoil of precious furs, of linen of Antioch,569 and of ingots of gold and
silver.570 On the banks of the Don, or Tanais, he received
an humble deputation from the consuls and merchants of
Egypt,571 Venice, Genoa, Catalonia, and Biscay, who occupied the commerce and city of Tana, or Azoph, at the mouth
of the river. They offered their gifts, admired his magnificence, and trusted his royal word. But the peaceful visit of
568 Institutions of Timour, p 123, 125 Mr White, the editor, bestows some animadversion on the superficial account of Sherefeddin, (l iii c 12, 13, 14,) who
was ignorant of the designs of Timour, and the true springs of action.
569 The furs of Russia are more credible than the ingots But the linen of Antioch has never been famous: and Antioch was in ruins I suspect that it was
some manufacture of Europe, which the Hanse merchants had imported by the
way of Novogorod.
570 M Levesque (Hist de Russie, tom ii p 247 Vie de Timour, p 64–67, before
the French version of the Institutes) has corrected the error of Sherefeddin, and
marked the true limit of Timour’s conquests His arguments are superfluous;
and a simple appeal to the Russian annals is sufficient to prove that Moscow,
which six years before had been taken by Toctamish, escaped the arms of a
more formidable invader.
571 An Egyptian consul from Grand Cairo is mentioned in Barbaro’s voyage
to Tana in 1436, after the city had been rebuilt, (Ramusio, tom ii fol 92).
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an emir, who explored the state of the magazines and harbor, was speedily followed by the destructive presence of the
Tartars. The city was reduced to ashes; the Moslems were pillaged and dismissed; but all the Christians, who had not fled
to their ships, were condemned either to death or slavery.572
Revenge prompted him to burn the cities of Serai and Astrachan, the monuments of rising civilization; and his vanity
proclaimed, that he had penetrated to the region of perpetual
daylight, a strange phenomenon, which authorized his Mahometan doctors to dispense with the obligation of evening
prayer.573
III. When Timour first proposed to his princes and emirs
the invasion of India or Hindostan,574 he was answered by a
murmur of discontent: “The rivers! and the mountains and
deserts! and the soldiers clad in armor! and the elephants,
destroyers of men!” But the displeasure of the emperor was
more dreadful than all these terrors; and his superior reason
was convinced, that an enterprise of such tremendous aspect
was safe and easy in the execution. He was informed by his
spies of the weakness and anarchy of Hindostan: the soubahs
of the provinces had erected the standard of rebellion; and
the perpetual infancy of Sultan Mahmoud was despised even
in the harem of Delhi. The Mogul army moved in three
great divisions; and Timour observes with pleasure, that the
572 The sack of Azoph is described by Sherefeddin, (l iii c 55,) and much
more particularly by the author of an Italian chronicle, (Andreas de Redusiis
de Quero, in Chron Tarvisiano, in Muratori, Script Rerum Italicarum, tom xix
p 802–805) He had conversed with the Mianis, two Venetian brothers, one of
whom had been sent a deputy to the camp of Timour, and the other had lost at
Azoph three sons and 12,000 ducats.
573 Sherefeddin only says (l iii c 13) that the rays of the setting, and those of the
rising sun, were scarcely separated by any interval; a problem which may be
solved in the latitude of Moscow, (the 56th degree,) with the aid of the Aurora
Borealis, and a long summer twilight But a day of forty days (Khondemir apud
D’Herbelot, p 880) would rigorously confine us within the polar circle.
574 For the Indian war, see the Institutions, (p 129–139,) the fourth book of
Sherefeddin, and the history of Ferishta, (in Dow, vol ii p 1–20,) which throws
a general light on the affairs of Hindostan.
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ninety-two squadrons of a thousand horse most fortunately
corresponded with the ninety-two names or epithets of the
prophet Mahomet.575 Between the Jihoon and the Indus they
crossed one of the ridges of mountains, which are styled by
the Arabian geographers The Stony Girdles of the Earth. The
highland robbers were subdued or extirpated; but great numbers of men and horses perished in the snow; the emperor
himself was let down a precipice on a portable scaffold–the
ropes were one hundred and fifty cubits in length; and before
he could reach the bottom, this dangerous operation was five
times repeated. Timour crossed the Indus at the ordinary passage of Attok; and successively traversed, in the footsteps of
Alexander, the Punjab, or five rivers,576 that fall into the master stream. From Attok to Delhi, the high road measures no
more than six hundred miles; but the two conquerors deviated to the south-east; and the motive of Timour was to join
his grandson, who had achieved by his command the conquest of Moultan. On the eastern bank of the Hyphasis, on
the edge of the desert, the Macedonian hero halted and wept:
the Mogul entered the desert, reduced the fortress of Batmir,
and stood in arms before the gates of Delhi, a great and flourishing city, which had subsisted three centuries under the
dominion of the Mahometan kings.577 The siege, more especially of the castle, might have been a work of time; but
he tempted, by the appearance of weakness, the sultan Mahmoud and his vizier to descend into the plain, with ten thou575 Gibbon (observes M von Hammer) is mistaken in the correspondence of
the ninety-two squadrons of his army with the ninety-two names of God: the
names of God are ninety-nine and Allah is the hundredth, p 286, note But Gibbon speaks of the names or epithets of Mahomet, not of God–M.
576 The rivers of the Punjab, the five eastern branches of the Indus, have been
laid down for the first time with truth and accuracy in Major Rennel’s incomparable map of Hindostan In this Critical Memoir he illustrates with judgment
and learning the marches of Alexander and Timour * Note See vol i ch ii note
1–M.
577 They took, on their march, 100,000 slaves, Guebers they were all murdered
V Hammer, vol i p 286 They are called idolaters Briggs’s Ferishta, vol i p 491–M.
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sand cuirassiers, forty thousand of his foot-guards, and one
hundred and twenty elephants, whose tusks are said to have
been armed with sharp and poisoned daggers. Against these
monsters, or rather against the imagination of his troops, he
condescended to use some extraordinary precautions of fire
and a ditch, of iron spikes and a rampart of bucklers; but
the event taught the Moguls to smile at their own fears; and
as soon as these unwieldy animals were routed, the inferior
species (the men of India) disappeared from the field. Timour
made his triumphal entry into the capital of Hindostan; and
admired, with a view to imitate, the architecture of the stately
mosque; but the order or license of a general pillage and massacre polluted the festival of his victory. He resolved to purify
his soldiers in the blood of the idolaters, or Gentoos, who still
surpass, in the proportion of ten to one, the numbers of the
Moslems.578 In this pious design, he advanced one hundred
miles to the north-east of Delhi, passed the Ganges, fought
several battles by land and water, and penetrated to the famous rock of Coupele, the statue of the cow,579 that seems to
discharge the mighty river, whose source is far distant among
the mountains of Thibet.580 His return was along the skirts of
578 See a curious passage on the destruction of the Hindoo idols, Memoirs, p
15–M.
579 Consult the very striking description of the Cow’s Mouth by Captain
Hodgson, Asiat Res vol xiv p 117 “A most wonderful scene The B’hagiratha
or Ganges issues from under a very low arch at the foot of the grand snow
bed My guide, an illiterate mountaineer compared the pendent icicles to Mahodeva’s hair” (Compare Poems, Quarterly Rev vol xiv p 37, and at the end
of my translation of Nala) “Hindoos of research may formerly have been here;
and if so, I cannot think of any place to which they might more aptly give the
name of a cow’s mouth than to this extraordinary debouche”–M.
580 The two great rivers, the Ganges and Burrampooter, rise in Thibet, from
the opposite ridges of the same hills, separate from each other to the distance of
1200 miles, and, after a winding course of 2000 miles, again meet in one point
near the Gulf of Bengal Yet so capricious is Fame, that the Burrampooter is a late
discovery, while his brother Ganges has been the theme of ancient and modern
story Coupele, the scene of Timour’s last victory, must be situate near Loldong,
1100 miles from Calcutta; and in 1774, a British camp! (Rennel’s Memoir, p 7,
59, 90, 91, 99).
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the northern hills; nor could this rapid campaign of one year
justify the strange foresight of his emirs, that their children in
a warm climate would degenerate into a race of Hindoos.
It was on the banks of the Ganges that Timour was informed, by his speedy messengers, of the disturbances which
had arisen on the confines of Georgia and Anatolia, of the revolt of the Christians, and the ambitious designs of the sultan Bajazet. His vigor of mind and body was not impaired
by sixty-three years, and innumerable fatigues; and, after enjoying some tranquil months in the palace of Samarcand, he
proclaimed a new expedition of seven years into the western
countries of Asia.581 To the soldiers who had served in the
Indian war he granted the choice of remaining at home, or
following their prince; but the troops of all the provinces and
kingdoms of Persia were commanded to assemble at Ispahan, and wait the arrival of the Imperial standard. It was first
directed against the Christians of Georgia, who were strong
only in their rocks, their castles, and the winter season; but
these obstacles were overcome by the zeal and perseverance
of Timour: the rebels submitted to the tribute or the Koran;
and if both religions boasted of their martyrs, that name is
more justly due to the Christian prisoners, who were offered
the choice of abjuration or death. On his descent from the
hills, the emperor gave audience to the first ambassadors
of Bajazet, and opened the hostile correspondence of complaints and menaces, which fermented two years before the
final explosion. Between two jealous and haughty neighbors, the motives of quarrel will seldom be wanting. The
Mogul and Ottoman conquests now touched each other in
the neighborhood of Erzeroum, and the Euphrates; nor had
the doubtful limit been ascertained by time and treaty. Each
of these ambitious monarchs might accuse his rival of violating his territory, of threatening his vassals, and protecting his
581 See the Institutions, p 141, to the end of the 1st book, and Sherefeddin, (l v
c 1–16,) to the entrance of Timour into Syria.
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rebels; and, by the name of rebels, each understood the fugitive princes, whose kingdoms he had usurped, and whose
life or liberty he implacably pursued. The resemblance of
character was still more dangerous than the opposition of interest; and in their victorious career, Timour was impatient
of an equal, and Bajazet was ignorant of a superior. The first
epistle582 of the Mogul emperor must have provoked, instead
of reconciling, the Turkish sultan, whose family and nation he
affected to despise.583 “Dost thou not know, that the greatest
part of Asia is subject to our arms and our laws? that our invincible forces extend from one sea to the other? that the potentates of the earth form a line before our gate? and that we
have compelled Fortune herself to watch over the prosperity
of our empire. What is the foundation of thy insolence and
folly? Thou hast fought some battles in the woods of Anatolia; contemptible trophies! Thou hast obtained some victories
over the Christians of Europe; thy sword was blessed by the
apostle of God; and thy obedience to the precept of the Koran, in waging war against the infidels, is the sole consideration that prevents us from destroying thy country, the frontier
and bulwark of the Moslem world. Be wise in time; reflect;
repent; and avert the thunder of our vengeance, which is yet
suspended over thy head. Thou art no more than a pismire;
why wilt thou seek to provoke the elephants? Alas! they will
trample thee under their feet.” In his replies, Bajazet poured
forth the indignation of a soul which was deeply stung by
582 We have three copies of these hostile epistles in the Institutions, (p 147,) in
Sherefeddin, (l v c 14,) and in Arabshah, (tom ii c 19 p 183–201;) which agree
with each other in the spirit and substance rather than in the style It is probable,
that they have been translated, with various latitude, from the Turkish original
into the Arabic and Persian tongues * Note: Von Hammer considers the letter
which Gibbon inserted in the text to be spurious On the various copies of these
letters, see his note, p 116–M.
583 The Mogul emir distinguishes himself and his countrymen by the name of
Turks, and stigmatizes the race and nation of Bajazet with the less honorable epithet of Turkmans Yet I do not understand how the Ottomans could be descended
from a Turkman sailor; those inland shepherds were so remote from the sea,
and all maritime affairs * Note: Price translated the word pilot or boatman–M.
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such unusual contempt. After retorting the basest reproaches
on the thief and rebel of the desert, the Ottoman recapitulates his boasted victories in Iran, Touran, and the Indies; and
labors to prove, that Timour had never triumphed unless by
his own perfidy and the vices of his foes. “Thy armies are
innumerable: be they so; but what are the arrows of the flying Tartar against the cimeters and battle-axes of my firm and
invincible Janizaries? I will guard the princes who have implored my protection: seek them in my tents. The cities of
Arzingan and Erzeroum are mine; and unless the tribute be
duly paid, I will demand the arrears under the walls of Tauris
and Sultania.” The ungovernable rage of the sultan at length
betrayed him to an insult of a more domestic kind. “If I fly
from thy arms,” said he, “may my wives be thrice divorced
from my bed: but if thou hast not courage to meet me in
the field, mayest thou again receive thy wives after they have
thrice endured the embraces of a stranger.”584 Any violation
by word or deed of the secrecy of the harem is an unpardonable offence among the Turkish nations;585 and the political
quarrel of the two monarchs was imbittered by private and
personal resentment. Yet in his first expedition, Timour was
satisfied with the siege and destruction of Siwas or Sebaste,
a strong city on the borders of Anatolia; and he revenged the
indiscretion of the Ottoman, on a garrison of four thousand
Armenians, who were buried alive for the brave and faithful discharge of their duty.586 As a Mussulman, he seemed
584 According to the Koran, (c ii p 27, and Sale’s Discourses, p 134,) Mussulman who had thrice divorced his wife, (who had thrice repeated the words of
a divorce,) could not take her again, till after she had been married to, and repudiated by, another husband; an ignominious transaction, which it is needless
to aggravate, by supposing that the first husband must see her enjoyed by a
second before his face, (Rycaut’s State of the Ottoman Empire, l ii c 21).
585 The common delicacy of the Orientals, in never speaking of their women,
is ascribed in a much higher degree by Arabshah to the Turkish nations; and it
is remarkable enough, that Chalcondyles (l ii p 55) had some knowledge of the
prejudice and the insult * Note: See Von Hammer, p 308, and note, p 621–M.
586 Still worse barbarities were perpetrated on these brave men Von Hammer,
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to respect the pious occupation of Bajazet, who was still engaged in the blockade of Constantinople; and after this salutary lesson, the Mogul conqueror checked his pursuit, and
turned aside to the invasion of Syria and Egypt. In these
transactions, the Ottoman prince, by the Orientals, and even
by Timour, is styled the Kaissar of Roum, the Cæsar of the Romans; a title which, by a small anticipation, might be given to
a monarch who possessed the provinces, and threatened the
city, of the successors of Constantine.587
vol i p 295–M.
587 For the style of the Moguls, see the Institutions, (p 131, 147,) and for the
Persians, the Bibliothèque Orientale, (p 882;) but I do not find that the title of
Cæsar has been applied by the Arabians, or assumed by the Ottomans themselves.
306
Part II
military republic of the Mamalukes still reigned in
T Egypt
and Syria: but the dynasty of the Turks was
HE
overthrown by that of the Circassians;588 and their favorite
Barkok, from a slave and a prisoner, was raised and restored
to the throne. In the midst of rebellion and discord, he braved
the menaces, corresponded with the enemies, and detained
the ambassadors, of the Mogul, who patiently expected his
decease, to revenge the crimes of the father on the feeble reign
of his son Farage. The Syrian emirs589 were assembled at
Aleppo to repel the invasion: they confided in the fame and
discipline of the Mamalukes, in the temper of their swords
and lances of the purest steel of Damascus, in the strength
of their walled cities, and in the populousness of sixty thousand villages; and instead of sustaining a siege, they threw
open their gates, and arrayed their forces in the plain. But
these forces were not cemented by virtue and union; and
some powerful emirs had been seduced to desert or betray
their more loyal companions. Timour’s front was covered
with a line of Indian elephants, whose turrets were filled with
archers and Greek fire: the rapid evolutions of his cavalry
completed the dismay and disorder; the Syrian crowds fell
back on each other: many thousands were stifled or slaughtered in the entrance of the great street; the Moguls entered
with the fugitives; and after a short defence, the citadel, the
impregnable citadel of Aleppo, was surrendered by cowardice or treachery. Among the suppliants and captives, Timour distinguished the doctors of the law, whom he invited to
588 See the reigns of Barkok and Pharadge, in M De Guignes, (tom iv l xxii,)
who, from the Arabic texts of Aboulmahasen, Ebn (Schounah, and Aintabi, has
added some facts to our common stock of materials).
589 For these recent and domestic transactions, Arabshah, though a partial, is
a credible, witness, (tom i c 64–68, tom ii c 1–14) Timour must have been odious
to a Syrian; but the notoriety of facts would have obliged him, in some measure,
to respect his enemy and himself His bitters may correct the luscious sweets of
Sherefeddin, (l v c 17–29).
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PART II
the dangerous honor of a personal conference.590 The Mogul
prince was a zealous Mussulman; but his Persian schools had
taught him to revere the memory of Ali and Hosein; and he
had imbibed a deep prejudice against the Syrians, as the enemies of the son of the daughter of the apostle of God. To these
doctors he proposed a captious question, which the casuists
of Bochara, Samarcand, and Herat, were incapable of resolving. “Who are the true martyrs, of those who are slain on
my side, or on that of my enemies?” But he was silenced, or
satisfied, by the dexterity of one of the cadhis of Aleppo, who
replied in the words of Mahomet himself, that the motive, not
the ensign, constitutes the martyr; and that the Moslems of either party, who fight only for the glory of God, may deserve
that sacred appellation. The true succession of the caliphs
was a controversy of a still more delicate nature; and the
frankness of a doctor, too honest for his situation, provoked
the emperor to exclaim, “Ye are as false as those of Damascus:
Moawiyah was a usurper, Yezid a tyrant, and Ali alone is the
lawful successor of the prophet.” A prudent explanation restored his tranquillity; and he passed to a more familiar topic
of conversation. “What is your age?” said he to the cadhi.
“Fifty years.”–“It would be the age of my eldest son: you
see me here (continued Timour) a poor lame, decrepit mortal. Yet by my arm has the Almighty been pleased to subdue
the kingdoms of Iran, Touran, and the Indies. I am not a man
of blood; and God is my witness, that in all my wars I have
never been the aggressor, and that my enemies have always
been the authors of their own calamity.” During this peaceful conversation the streets of Aleppo streamed with blood,
and reechoed with the cries of mothers and children, with
the shrieks of violated virgins. The rich plunder that was
abandoned to his soldiers might stimulate their avarice; but
590 These interesting conversations appear to have been copied by Arabshah
(tom i c 68, p 625–645) from the cadhi and historian Ebn Schounah, a principal
actor Yet how could he be alive seventy-five years afterwards? (D’Herbelot, p
792).
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PART II
their cruelty was enforced by the peremptory command of
producing an adequate number of heads, which, according
to his custom, were curiously piled in columns and pyramids: the Moguls celebrated the feast of victory, while the
surviving Moslems passed the night in tears and in chains.
I shall not dwell on the march of the destroyer from Aleppo
to Damascus, where he was rudely encountered, and almost
overthrown, by the armies of Egypt. A retrograde motion
was imputed to his distress and despair: one of his nephews
deserted to the enemy; and Syria rejoiced in the tale of his
defeat, when the sultan was driven by the revolt of the Mamalukes to escape with precipitation and shame to his palace
of Cairo. Abandoned by their prince, the inhabitants of Damascus still defended their walls; and Timour consented to
raise the siege, if they would adorn his retreat with a gift or
ransom; each article of nine pieces. But no sooner had he
introduced himself into the city, under color of a truce, than
he perfidiously violated the treaty; imposed a contribution of
ten millions of gold; and animated his troops to chastise the
posterity of those Syrians who had executed, or approved,
the murder of the grandson of Mahomet. A family which had
given honorable burial to the head of Hosein, and a colony of
artificers, whom he sent to labor at Samarcand, were alone
reserved in the general massacre, and after a period of seven
centuries, Damascus was reduced to ashes, because a Tartar
was moved by religious zeal to avenge the blood of an Arab.
The losses and fatigues of the campaign obliged Timour to
renounce the conquest of Palestine and Egypt; but in his return to the Euphrates he delivered Aleppo to the flames; and
justified his pious motive by the pardon and reward of two
thousand sectaries of Ali, who were desirous to visit the tomb
of his son. I have expatiated on the personal anecdotes which
mark the character of the Mogul hero; but I shall briefly mention,591 that he erected on the ruins of Bagdad a pyramid of
591 The marches and occupations of Timour between the Syrian and Ottoman
wars are represented by Sherefeddin (l v c 29–43) and Arabshah, (tom ii c 15–
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ninety thousand heads; again visited Georgia; encamped on
the banks of Araxes; and proclaimed his resolution of marching against the Ottoman emperor. Conscious of the importance of the war, he collected his forces from every province:
eight hundred thousand men were enrolled on his military
list;592 but the splendid commands of five, and ten, thousand horse, may be rather expressive of the rank and pension of the chiefs, than of the genuine number of effective
soldiers.593 In the pillage of Syria, the Moguls had acquired
immense riches: but the delivery of their pay and arrears for
seven years more firmly attached them to the Imperial standard.
During this diversion of the Mogul arms, Bajazet had two
years to collect his forces for a more serious encounter. They
consisted of four hundred thousand horse and foot,594 whose
merit and fidelity were of an unequal complexion. We may
discriminate the Janizaries, who have been gradually raised
to an establishment of forty thousand men; a national cavalry, the Spahis of modern times; twenty thousand cuirassiers
of Europe, clad in black and impenetrable armor; the troops
of Anatolia, whose princes had taken refuge in the camp of
18).
592 This number of 800,000 was extracted by Arabshah, or rather by Ebn
Schounah, ex rationario Timuri, on the faith of a Carizmian officer, (tom i c
68, p 617;) and it is remarkable enough, that a Greek historian (Phranza, l i c
29) adds no more than 20,000 men Poggius reckons 1,000,000; another Latin
contemporary (Chron Tarvisianum, apud Muratori, tom xix p 800) 1,100,000;
and the enormous sum of 1,600,000 is attested by a German soldier, who was
present at the battle of Angora, (Leunclav ad Chalcondyl l iii p 82) Timour,
in his Institutions, has not deigned to calculate his troops, his subjects, or his
revenues.
593 A wide latitude of non-effectives was allowed by the Great Mogul for his
own pride and the benefit of his officers Bernier’s patron was Penge-Hazari,
commander of 5000 horse; of which he maintained no more than 500, (Voyages,
tom i p 288, 289).
594 Timour himself fixes at 400,000 men the Ottoman army, (Institutions, p
153,) which is reduced to 150,000 by Phranza, (l i c 29,) and swelled by the German soldier to 1,400,000 It is evident that the Moguls were the more numerous.
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Timour, and a colony of Tartars, whom he had driven from
Kipzak, and to whom Bajazet had assigned a settlement in
the plains of Adrianople. The fearless confidence of the sultan urged him to meet his antagonist; and, as if he had chosen that spot for revenge, he displayed his banner near the
ruins of the unfortunate Suvas. In the mean while, Timour
moved from the Araxes through the countries of Armenia
and Anatolia: his boldness was secured by the wisest precautions; his speed was guided by order and discipline; and
the woods, the mountains, and the rivers, were diligently explored by the flying squadrons, who marked his road and
preceded his standard. Firm in his plan of fighting in the
heart of the Ottoman kingdom, he avoided their camp; dexterously inclined to the left; occupied Cæsarea; traversed the
salt desert and the River Halys; and invested Angora: while
the sultan, immovable and ignorant in his post, compared the
Tartar swiftness to the crawling of a snail;595 he returned on
the wings of indignation to the relief of Angora: and as both
generals were alike impatient for action, the plains round that
city were the scene of a memorable battle, which has immortalized the glory of Timour and the shame of Bajazet. For this
signal victory the Mogul emperor was indebted to himself, to
the genius of the moment, and the discipline of thirty years.
He had improved the tactics, without violating the manners,
of his nation,596 whose force still consisted in the missile
weapons, and rapid evolutions, of a numerous cavalry. From
a single troop to a great army, the mode of attack was the
same: a foremost line first advanced to the charge, and was
supported in a just order by the squadrons of the great vanguard. The general’s eye watched over the field, and at his
595 It may not be useless to mark the distances between Angora and the neighboring cities, by the journeys of the caravans, each of twenty or twenty-five
miles; to Smyrna xx, to Kiotahia x, to Boursa x, to Cæsarea, viii, to Sinope x, to
Nicomedia ix, to Constantinople xii or xiii, (see Tournefort, Voyage au Levant,
tom ii lettre xxi).
596 See the Systems of Tactics in the Institutions, which the English editors
have illustrated with elaborate plans, (p 373–407).
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command the front and rear of the right and left wings successively moved forwards in their several divisions, and in
a direct or oblique line: the enemy was pressed by eighteen
or twenty attacks; and each attack afforded a chance of victory. If they all proved fruitless or unsuccessful, the occasion
was worthy of the emperor himself, who gave the signal of
advancing to the standard and main body, which he led in
person.597 But in the battle of Angora, the main body itself
was supported, on the flanks and in the rear, by the bravest
squadrons of the reserve, commanded by the sons and grandsons of Timour. The conqueror of Hindostan ostentatiously
showed a line of elephants, the trophies, rather than the instruments, of victory; the use of the Greek fire was familiar to
the Moguls and Ottomans; but had they borrowed from Europe the recent invention of gunpowder and cannon, the artificial thunder, in the hands of either nation, must have turned
the fortune of the day.598 In that day Bajazet displayed the
qualities of a soldier and a chief: but his genius sunk under
a stronger ascendant; and, from various motives, the greatest
part of his troops failed him in the decisive moment. His rigor
and avarice599 had provoked a mutiny among the Turks; and
even his son Soliman too hastily withdrew from the field. The
forces of Anatolia, loyal in their revolt, were drawn away to
the banners of their lawful princes. His Tartar allies had been
tempted by the letters and emissaries of Timour;600 who re597 The sultan himself (says Timour) must then put the foot of courage into
the stirrup of patience A Tartar metaphor, which is lost in the English, but preserved in the French, version of the Institutes, (p 156, 157).
598 The Greek fire, on Timour’s side, is attested by Sherefeddin, (l v c 47;) but
Voltaire’s strange suspicion, that some cannon, inscribed with strange characters, must have been sent by that monarch to Delhi, is refuted by the universal
silence of contemporaries.
599 See V Hammer, vol i p 310, for the singular hints which were conveyed to
him of the wisdom of unlocking his hoarded treasures–M.
600 Timour has dissembled this secret and important negotiation with the Tartars, which is indisputably proved by the joint evidence of the Arabian, (tom
i c 47, p 391,) Turkish, (Annal Leunclav p 321,) and Persian historians, (Khon-
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proached their ignoble servitude under the slaves of their fathers; and offered to their hopes the dominion of their new,
or the liberty of their ancient, country. In the right wing
of Bajazet the cuirassiers of Europe charged, with faithful
hearts and irresistible arms: but these men of iron were soon
broken by an artful flight and headlong pursuit; and the
Janizaries, alone, without cavalry or missile weapons, were
encompassed by the circle of the Mogul hunters. Their valor
was at length oppressed by heat, thirst, and the weight of
numbers; and the unfortunate sultan, afflicted with the gout
in his hands and feet, was transported from the field on the
fleetest of his horses. He was pursued and taken by the titular khan of Zagatai; and, after his capture, and the defeat
of the Ottoman powers, the kingdom of Anatolia submitted
to the conqueror, who planted his standard at Kiotahia, and
dispersed on all sides the ministers of rapine and destruction.
Mirza Mehemmed Sultan, the eldest and best beloved of his
grandsons, was despatched to Boursa, with thirty thousand
horse; and such was his youthful ardor, that he arrived with
only four thousand at the gates of the capital, after performing in five days a march of two hundred and thirty miles.
Yet fear is still more rapid in its course; and Soliman, the son
of Bajazet, had already passed over to Europe with the royal
treasure. The spoil, however, of the palace and city was immense: the inhabitants had escaped; but the buildings, for
the most part of wood, were reduced to ashes From Boursa,
the grandson of Timour advanced to Nice, ever yet a fair and
flourishing city; and the Mogul squadrons were only stopped
by the waves of the Propontis. The same success attended the
other mirzas and emirs in their excursions; and Smyrna, defended by the zeal and courage of the Rhodian knights, alone
deserved the presence of the emperor himself. After an obstinate defence, the place was taken by storm: all that breathed
was put to the sword; and the heads of the Christian heroes
were launched from the engines, on board of two carracks, or
demir, apud d’Herbelot, p 882).
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great ships of Europe, that rode at anchor in the harbor. The
Moslems of Asia rejoiced in their deliverance from a dangerous and domestic foe; and a parallel was drawn between the
two rivals, by observing that Timour, in fourteen days, had
reduced a fortress which had sustained seven years the siege,
or at least the blockade, of Bajazet.601
The iron cage in which Bajazet was imprisoned by Tamerlane, so long and so often repeated as a moral lesson, is now
rejected as a fable by the modern writers, who smile at the
vulgar credulity.602 They appeal with confidence to the Persian history of Sherefeddin Ali, which has been given to our
curiosity in a French version, and from which I shall collect and abridge a more specious narrative of this memorable
transaction. No sooner was Timour informed that the captive Ottoman was at the door of his tent, than he graciously
stepped forwards to receive him, seated him by his side, and
mingled with just reproaches a soothing pity for his rank
and misfortune. “Alas!” said the emperor, “the decree of
fate is now accomplished by your own fault; it is the web
which you have woven, the thorns of the tree which yourself have planted. I wished to spare, and even to assist, the
champion of the Moslems; you braved our threats; you despised our friendship; you forced us to enter your kingdom
with our invincible armies. Behold the event. Had you vanquished, I am not ignorant of the fate which you reserved
for myself and my troops. But I disdain to retaliate: your
life and honor are secure; and I shall express my gratitude
to God by my clemency to man.” The royal captive showed
some signs of repentance, accepted the humiliation of a robe
601 For the war of Anatolia or Roum, I add some hints in the Institutions, to the
copious narratives of Sherefeddin (l v c 44–65) and Arabshah, (tom ii c 20–35)
On this part only of Timour’s history it is lawful to quote the Turks, (Cantemir,
p 53–55, Annal Leunclav p 320–322,) and the Greeks, (Phranza, l i c 59, Ducas,
c 15–17, Chalcondyles, l iii).
602 The scepticism of Voltaire (Essai sur l’Histoire Générale, c 88) is ready on
this, as on every occasion, to reject a popular tale, and to diminish the magnitude of vice and virtue; and on most occasions his incredulity is reasonable.
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of honor, and embraced with tears his son Mousa, who, at
his request, was sought and found among the captives of the
field. The Ottoman princes were lodged in a splendid pavilion; and the respect of the guards could be surpassed only
by their vigilance. On the arrival of the harem from Boursa,
Timour restored the queen Despina and her daughter to their
father and husband; but he piously required, that the Servian
princess, who had hitherto been indulged in the profession
of Christianity, should embrace without delay the religion of
the prophet. In the feast of victory, to which Bajazet was invited, the Mogul emperor placed a crown on his head and a
sceptre in his hand, with a solemn assurance of restoring him
with an increase of glory to the throne of his ancestors. But
the effect of his promise was disappointed by the sultan’s untimely death: amidst the care of the most skilful physicians,
he expired of an apoplexy at Akshehr, the Antioch of Pisidia,
about nine months after his defeat. The victor dropped a tear
over his grave: his body, with royal pomp, was conveyed to
the mausoleum which he had erected at Boursa; and his son
Mousa, after receiving a rich present of gold and jewels, of
horses and arms, was invested by a patent in red ink with the
kingdom of Anatolia.
Such is the portrait of a generous conqueror, which has
been extracted from his own memorials, and dedicated to his
son and grandson, nineteen years after his decease;603 and,
at a time when the truth was remembered by thousands, a
manifest falsehood would have implied a satire on his real
conduct. Weighty indeed is this evidence, adopted by all the
Persian histories;604 yet flattery, more especially in the East,
is base and audacious; and the harsh and ignominious treat603 See the History of Sherefeddin, (l v c 49, 52, 53, 59, 60) This work was
finished at Shiraz, in the year 1424, and dedicated to Sultan Ibrahim, the son of
Sharokh, the son of Timour, who reigned in Farsistan in his father’s lifetime.
604 After the perusal of Khondemir, Ebn Schounah, &c, the learned
D’Herbelot (Bibliot Orientale, p 882) may affirm, that this fable is not mentioned in the most authentic histories; but his denial of the visible testimony of
Arabshah leaves some room to suspect his accuracy.
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ment of Bajazet is attested by a chain of witnesses, some of
whom shall be produced in the order of their time and country. 1. The reader has not forgot the garrison of French,
whom the marshal Boucicault left behind him for the defence of Constantinople. They were on the spot to receive
the earliest and most faithful intelligence of the overthrow
of their great adversary; and it is more than probable, that
some of them accompanied the Greek embassy to the camp
of Tamerlane. From their account, the hardships of the prison
and death of Bajazet are affirmed by the marshal’s servant
and historian, within the distance of seven years.605 2. The
name of Poggius the Italian606 is deservedly famous among
the revivers of learning in the fifteenth century. His elegant
dialogue on the vicissitudes of fortune607 was composed in
his fiftieth year, twenty-eight years after the Turkish victory
of Tamerlane;608 whom he celebrates as not inferior to the
illustrious Barbarians of antiquity. Of his exploits and discipline Poggius was informed by several ocular witnesses; nor
does he forget an example so apposite to his theme as the
Ottoman monarch, whom the Scythian confined like a wild
beast in an iron cage, and exhibited a spectacle to Asia. I
605 Et fut lui-même (Bajazet) pris, et mené en prison, en laquelle mourut de
dure mort! Mémoires de Boucicault, P i c 37 These Memoirs were composed
while the marshal was still governor of Genoa, from whence he was expelled
in the year 1409, by a popular insurrection, (Muratori, Annali d’Italia, tom xii p
473, 474).
606 The reader will find a satisfactory account of the life and writings of Poggius in the Poggiana, an entertaining work of M Lenfant, and in the Bibliotheca
Latina Mediæ et Infimæ Ætatis of Fabricius, (tom v p 305–308) Poggius was
born in the year 1380, and died in 1459.
607 The dialogue de Varietate Fortunæ, (of which a complete and elegant edition has been published at Paris in 1723, in 4to,) was composed a short time
before the death of Pope Martin V, (p 5,) and consequently about the end of the
year 1430.
608 See a splendid and eloquent encomium of Tamerlane, p 36–39 ipse enim
novi (says Poggius) qui fuere in ejus castris Regem vivum cepit, caveâque
in modum feræ inclusum per omnem Asian circumtulit egregium admirandumque spectaculum fortunæ.
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might add the authority of two Italian chronicles, perhaps
of an earlier date, which would prove at least that the same
story, whether false or true, was imported into Europe with
the first tidings of the revolution.609 3. At the time when Poggius flourished at Rome, Ahmed Ebn Arabshah composed
at Damascus the florid and malevolent history of Timour,
for which he had collected materials in his journeys over
Turkey and Tartary.610 Without any possible correspondence
between the Latin and the Arabian writer, they agree in the
fact of the iron cage; and their agreement is a striking proof
of their common veracity. Ahmed Arabshah likewise relates
another outrage, which Bajazet endured, of a more domestic and tender nature. His indiscreet mention of women and
divorces was deeply resented by the jealous Tartar: in the
feast of victory the wine was served by female cupbearers,
and the sultan beheld his own concubines and wives confounded among the slaves, and exposed without a veil to
the eyes of intemperance. To escape a similar indignity, it
is said that his successors, except in a single instance, have
abstained from legitimate nuptials; and the Ottoman practice and belief, at least in the sixteenth century, is asserted by
the observing Busbequius,611 ambassador from the court of
Vienna to the great Soliman. 4. Such is the separation of language, that the testimony of a Greek is not less independent
than that of a Latin or an Arab. I suppress the names of Chalcondyles and Ducas, who flourished in the latter period, and
who speak in a less positive tone; but more attention is due
609 The Chronicon Tarvisianum, (in Muratori, Script Rerum Italicarum tom
xix p 800,) and the Annales Estenses, (tom xviii p 974) The two authors, Andrea
de Redusiis de Quero, and James de Delayto, were both contemporaries, and
both chancellors, the one of Trevigi, the other of Ferrara The evidence of the
former is the most positive.
610 See Arabshah, tom ii c 28, 34 He travelled in regiones Rumæas, A H 839,
(AD 1435, July 27,) tom i c 2, p 13.
611 Busbequius in Legatione Turcicâ, epist i p 52 Yet his respectable authority
is somewhat shaken by the subsequent marriages of Amurath II with a Servian,
and of Mahomet II with an Asiatic, princess, (Cantemir, p 83, 93).
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to George Phranza,612 protovestiare of the last emperors, and
who was born a year before the battle of Angora. Twenty-two
years after that event, he was sent ambassador to Amurath
the Second; and the historian might converse with some veteran Janizaries, who had been made prisoners with the sultan, and had themselves seen him in his iron cage. 5. The last
evidence, in every sense, is that of the Turkish annals, which
have been consulted or transcribed by Leunclavius, Pocock,
and Cantemir.613 They unanimously deplore the captivity of
the iron cage; and some credit may be allowed to national
historians, who cannot stigmatize the Tartar without uncovering the shame of their king and country.
From these opposite premises, a fair and moderate conclusion may be deduced. I am satisfied that Sherefeddin Ali has
faithfully described the first ostentatious interview, in which
the conqueror, whose spirits were harmonized by success, affected the character of generosity. But his mind was insensibly alienated by the unseasonable arrogance of Bajazet; the
complaints of his enemies, the Anatolian princes, were just
and vehement; and Timour betrayed a design of leading his
royal captive in triumph to Samarcand. An attempt to facilitate his escape, by digging a mine under the tent, provoked the Mogul emperor to impose a harsher restraint; and
in his perpetual marches, an iron cage on a wagon might be
invented, not as a wanton insult, but as a rigorous precaution. Timour had read in some fabulous history a similar
treatment of one of his predecessors, a king of Persia; and
Bajazet was condemned to represent the person, and expi612 See the testimony of George Phranza, (l i c 29,) and his life in Hanckius
(de Script Byzant P i c 40) Chalcondyles and Ducas speak in general terms of
Bajazet’s chains.
613 Annales Leunclav p 321 Pocock, Prolegomen ad Abulpharag Dynast Cantemir, p 55 * Note: Von Hammer, p 318, cites several authorities unknown to
Gibbon–M.
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ate the guilt, of the Roman Cæsar614615 But the strength of
his mind and body fainted under the trial, and his premature
death might, without injustice, be ascribed to the severity of
Timour. He warred not with the dead: a tear and a sepulchre
were all that he could bestow on a captive who was delivered
from his power; and if Mousa, the son of Bajazet, was permitted to reign over the ruins of Boursa, the greatest part of the
province of Anatolia had been restored by the conqueror to
their lawful sovereigns.
From the Irtish and Volga to the Persian Gulf, and from
the Ganges to Damascus and the Archipelago, Asia was in
the hand of Timour: his armies were invincible, his ambition was boundless, and his zeal might aspire to conquer and
convert the Christian kingdoms of the West, which already
trembled at his name. He touched the utmost verge of the
land; but an insuperable, though narrow, sea rolled between
the two continents of Europe and Asia;616 and the lord of
so many tomans, or myriads, of horse, was not master of a
single galley. The two passages of the Bosphorus and Helle614 Sapor, king of Persia, had been made prisoner, and enclosed in the figure
of a cow’s hide by Maximian or Galerius Cæsar Such is the fable related by
Eutychius, (Annal tom i p 421, vers Pocock) The recollection of the true history
(Decline and Fall, &c, vol ii p 140–152) will teach us to appreciate the knowledge of the Orientals of the ages which precede the Hegira.
615 Von Hammer’s explanation of this contested point is both simple and satisfactory It originates in a mistake in the meaning of the Turkish word kafe,
which means a covered litter or palanquin drawn by two horses, and is generally used to convey the harem of an Eastern monarch In such a litter, with
the lattice-work made of iron, Bajazet either chose or was constrained to travel
This was either mistaken for, or transformed by, ignorant relaters into a cage
The European Schiltberger, the two oldest of the Turkish historians, and the
most valuable of the later compilers, Seadeddin, describe this litter Seadeddin
discusses the question with some degree of historical criticism, and ascribes the
choice of such a vehicle to the indignant state of Bajazet’s mind, which would
not brook the sight of his Tartar conquerors Von Hammer, p 320–M.
616 Arabshah (tom ii c 25) describes, like a curious traveller, the Straits of Gallipoli and Constantinople To acquire a just idea of these events, I have compared the narratives and prejudices of the Moguls, Turks, Greeks, and Arabians The Spanish ambassador mentions this hostile union of the Christians and
Ottomans, (Vie de Timour, p 96).
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spont, of Constantinople and Gallipoli, were possessed, the
one by the Christians, the other by the Turks. On this great
occasion, they forgot the difference of religion, to act with
union and firmness in the common cause: the double straits
were guarded with ships and fortifications; and they separately withheld the transports which Timour demanded of
either nation, under the pretence of attacking their enemy.
At the same time, they soothed his pride with tributary gifts
and suppliant embassies, and prudently tempted him to retreat with the honors of victory. Soliman, the son of Bajazet,
implored his clemency for his father and himself; accepted,
by a red patent, the investiture of the kingdom of Romania,
which he already held by the sword; and reiterated his ardent
wish, of casting himself in person at the feet of the king of the
world. The Greek emperor617 (either John or Manuel) submitted to pay the same tribute which he had stipulated with
the Turkish sultan, and ratified the treaty by an oath of allegiance, from which he could absolve his conscience so soon
as the Mogul arms had retired from Anatolia. But the fears
and fancy of nations ascribed to the ambitious Tamerlane a
new design of vast and romantic compass; a design of subduing Egypt and Africa, marching from the Nile to the Atlantic Ocean, entering Europe by the Straits of Gibraltar, and,
after imposing his yoke on the kingdoms of Christendom, of
returning home by the deserts of Russia and Tartary. This
remote, and perhaps imaginary, danger was averted by the
submission of the sultan of Egypt: the honors of the prayer
and the coin attested at Cairo the supremacy of Timour; and
a rare gift of a giraffe, or camelopard, and nine ostriches, represented at Samarcand the tribute of the African world. Our
imagination is not less astonished by the portrait of a Mogul,
who, in his camp before Smyrna, meditates, and almost ac617 Since the name of Cæsar had been transferred to the sultans of Roum, the
Greek princes of Constantinople (Sherefeddin, l v c 54) were confounded with
the Christian lords of Gallipoli, Thessalonica, &c under the title of Tekkur, which
is derived by corruption from the genitive tou kuriou, (Cantemir, p 51).
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complishes, the invasion of the Chinese empire.618 Timour
was urged to this enterprise by national honor and religious
zeal. The torrents which he had shed of Mussulman blood
could be expiated only by an equal destruction of the infidels; and as he now stood at the gates of paradise, he might
best secure his glorious entrance by demolishing the idols of
China, founding mosques in every city, and establishing the
profession of faith in one God, and his prophet Mahomet.
The recent expulsion of the house of Zingis was an insult on
the Mogul name; and the disorders of the empire afforded
the fairest opportunity for revenge. The illustrious Hongvou,
founder of the dynasty of Ming, died four years before the
battle of Angora; and his grandson, a weak and unfortunate
youth, was burnt in his palace, after a million of Chinese had
perished in the civil war.619 Before he evacuated Anatolia,
Timour despatched beyond the Sihoon a numerous army, or
rather colony, of his old and new subjects, to open the road,
to subdue the Pagan Calmucks and Mungals, and to found
cities and magazines in the desert; and, by the diligence of
his lieutenant, he soon received a perfect map and description of the unknown regions, from the source of the Irtish to
the wall of China. During these preparations, the emperor
achieved the final conquest of Georgia; passed the winter on
the banks of the Araxes; appeased the troubles of Persia; and
slowly returned to his capital, after a campaign of four years
and nine months.
618 See Sherefeddin, l v c 4, who marks, in a just itinerary, the road to China,
which Arabshah (tom ii c 33) paints in vague and rhetorical colors.
619 Synopsis Hist Sinicæ, p 74–76, (in the ivth part of the Relations de
Thevenot,) Duhalde, Hist de la Chine, (tom i p 507, 508, folio edition;) and
for the Chronology of the Chinese emperors, De Guignes, Hist des Huns, (tom
i p 71, 72).
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Part III
the throne of Samarcand,620 he displayed, in a short repose, his magnificence and power; listened to the complaints of the people; distributed a just measure of rewards
and punishments; employed his riches in the architecture of
palaces and temples; and gave audience to the ambassadors
of Egypt, Arabia, India, Tartary, Russia, and Spain, the last of
whom presented a suit of tapestry which eclipsed the pencil
of the Oriental artists. The marriage of six of the emperor’s
grandsons was esteemed an act of religion as well as of paternal tenderness; and the pomp of the ancient caliphs was revived in their nuptials. They were celebrated in the gardens
of Canighul, decorated with innumerable tents and pavilions, which displayed the luxury of a great city and the spoils
of a victorious camp. Whole forests were cut down to supply
fuel for the kitchens; the plain was spread with pyramids of
meat, and vases of every liquor, to which thousands of guests
were courteously invited: the orders of the state, and the nations of the earth, were marshalled at the royal banquet; nor
were the ambassadors of Europe (says the haughty Persian)
excluded from the feast; since even the casses, the smallest of
fish, find their place in the ocean.621 The public joy was testified by illuminations and masquerades; the trades of Samarcand passed in review; and every trade was emulous to execute some quaint device, some marvellous pageant, with the
materials of their peculiar art. After the marriage contracts
had been ratified by the cadhis, the bride-grooms and their
O
N
620 For the return, triumph, and death of Timour, see Sherefeddin (l vi c 1–30)
and Arabshah, (tom ii c 36–47).
621 Sherefeddin (l vi c 24) mentions the ambassadors of one of the most potent
sovereigns of Europe We know that it was Henry III king of Castile; and the
curious relation of his two embassies is still extant, (Mariana, Hist Hispan l xix c
11, tom ii p 329, 330 Avertissement à l’Hist de Timur Bec, p 28–33) There appears
likewise to have been some correspondence between the Mogul emperor and
the court of Charles VII king of France, (Histoire de France, par Velly et Villaret,
tom xii p 336).
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brides retired to the nuptial chambers: nine times, according
to the Asiatic fashion, they were dressed and undressed; and
at each change of apparel, pearls and rubies were showered
on their heads, and contemptuously abandoned to their attendants. A general indulgence was proclaimed: every law
was relaxed, every pleasure was allowed; the people was
free, the sovereign was idle; and the historian of Timour may
remark, that, after devoting fifty years to the attainment of
empire, the only happy period of his life were the two months
in which he ceased to exercise his power. But he was soon
awakened to the cares of government and war. The standard
was unfurled for the invasion of China: the emirs made their
report of two hundred thousand, the select and veteran soldiers of Iran and Touran: their baggage and provisions were
transported by five hundred great wagons, and an immense
train of horses and camels; and the troops might prepare for a
long absence, since more than six months were employed in
the tranquil journey of a caravan from Samarcand to Pekin.
Neither age, nor the severity of the winter, could retard the
impatience of Timour; he mounted on horseback, passed the
Sihoon on the ice, marched seventy-six parasangs, three hundred miles, from his capital, and pitched his last camp in the
neighborhood of Otrar, where he was expected by the angel
of death. Fatigue, and the indiscreet use of iced water, accelerated the progress of his fever; and the conqueror of Asia
expired in the seventieth year of his age, thirty-five years after he had ascended the throne of Zagatai. His designs were
lost; his armies were disbanded; China was saved; and fourteen years after his decease, the most powerful of his children
sent an embassy of friendship and commerce to the court of
Pekin.622
622 See the translation of the Persian account of their embassy, a curious and
original piece, (in the ivth part of the Relations de Thevenot) They presented
the emperor of China with an old horse which Timour had formerly rode It
was in the year 1419 that they departed from the court of Herat, to which place
they returned in 1422 from Pekin.
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The fame of Timour has pervaded the East and West: his
posterity is still invested with the Imperial title; and the admiration of his subjects, who revered him almost as a deity,
may be justified in some degree by the praise or confession of
his bitterest enemies.623 Although he was lame of a hand and
foot, his form and stature were not unworthy of his rank; and
his vigorous health, so essential to himself and to the world,
was corroborated by temperance and exercise. In his familiar
discourse he was grave and modest, and if he was ignorant
of the Arabic language, he spoke with fluency and elegance
the Persian and Turkish idioms. It was his delight to converse with the learned on topics of history and science; and
the amusement of his leisure hours was the game of chess,
which he improved or corrupted with new refinements.624
In his religion he was a zealous, though not perhaps an orthodox, Mussulman;625 but his sound understanding may
tempt us to believe, that a superstitious reverence for omens
and prophecies, for saints and astrologers, was only affected
as an instrument of policy. In the government of a vast empire, he stood alone and absolute, without a rebel to oppose
his power, a favorite to seduce his affections, or a minister to
mislead his judgment. It was his firmest maxim, that whatever might be the consequence, the word of the prince should
never be disputed or recalled; but his foes have maliciously
observed, that the commands of anger and destruction were
more strictly executed than those of beneficence and favor.
His sons and grandsons, of whom Timour left six-and-thirty
623 From Arabshah, tom ii c 96 The bright or softer colors are borrowed from
Sherefeddin, D’Herbelot, and the Institutions.
624 His new system was multiplied from 32 pieces and 64 squares to 56 pieces
and 110 or 130 squares; but, except in his court, the old game has been thought
sufficiently elaborate The Mogul emperor was rather pleased than hurt with
the victory of a subject: a chess player will feel the value of this encomium!.
625 See Sherefeddin, (l v c 15, 25 Arabshah tom ii c 96, p 801, 803) approves
the impiety of Timour and the Moguls, who almost preferred to the Koran the
Yacsa, or Law of Zingis, (cui Deus maledicat;) nor will he believe that Sharokh
had abolished the use and authority of that Pagan code.
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at his decease, were his first and most submissive subjects;
and whenever they deviated from their duty, they were corrected, according to the laws of Zingis, with the bastinade,
and afterwards restored to honor and command. Perhaps his
heart was not devoid of the social virtues; perhaps he was not
incapable of loving his friends and pardoning his enemies;
but the rules of morality are founded on the public interest;
and it may be sufficient to applaud the wisdom of a monarch,
for the liberality by which he is not impoverished, and for the
justice by which he is strengthened and enriched. To maintain the harmony of authority and obedience, to chastise the
proud, to protect the weak, to reward the deserving, to banish vice and idleness from his dominions, to secure the traveller and merchant, to restrain the depredations of the soldier, to cherish the labors of the husbandman, to encourage
industry and learning, and, by an equal and moderate assessment, to increase the revenue, without increasing the taxes,
are indeed the duties of a prince; but, in the discharge of
these duties, he finds an ample and immediate recompense.
Timour might boast, that, at his accession to the throne, Asia
was the prey of anarchy and rapine, whilst under his prosperous monarchy a child, fearless and unhurt, might carry a
purse of gold from the East to the West. Such was his confidence of merit, that from this reformation he derived an excuse for his victories, and a title to universal dominion. The
four following observations will serve to appreciate his claim
to the public gratitude; and perhaps we shall conclude, that
the Mogul emperor was rather the scourge than the benefactor of mankind. 1. If some partial disorders, some local
oppressions, were healed by the sword of Timour, the remedy was far more pernicious than the disease. By their rapine, cruelty, and discord, the petty tyrants of Persia might afflict their subjects; but whole nations were crushed under the
footsteps of the reformer. The ground which had been occupied by flourishing cities was often marked by his abominable trophies, by columns, or pyramids, of human heads.
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Astracan, Carizme, Delhi, Ispahan, Bagdad, Aleppo, Damascus, Boursa, Smyrna, and a thousand others, were sacked,
or burnt, or utterly destroyed, in his presence, and by his
troops: and perhaps his conscience would have been startled,
if a priest or philosopher had dared to number the millions of
victims whom he had sacrificed to the establishment of peace
and order.626 2. His most destructive wars were rather inroads than conquests. He invaded Turkestan, Kipzak, Russia,
Hindostan, Syria, Anatolia, Armenia, and Georgia, without a
hope or a desire of preserving those distant provinces. From
thence he departed laden with spoil; but he left behind him
neither troops to awe the contumacious, nor magistrates to
protect the obedient, natives. When he had broken the fabric of their ancient government, he abandoned them to the
evils which his invasion had aggravated or caused; nor were
these evils compensated by any present or possible benefits.
3. The kingdoms of Transoxiana and Persia were the proper
field which he labored to cultivate and adorn, as the perpetual inheritance of his family. But his peaceful labors were often interrupted, and sometimes blasted, by the absence of the
conqueror. While he triumphed on the Volga or the Ganges,
his servants, and even his sons, forgot their master and their
duty. The public and private injuries were poorly redressed
by the tardy rigor of inquiry and punishment; and we must
be content to praise the Institutions of Timour, as the specious
idea of a perfect monarchy. 4. Whatsoever might be the blessings of his administration, they evaporated with his life. To
reign, rather than to govern, was the ambition of his children
and grandchildren;627 the enemies of each other and of the
626 Besides the bloody passages of this narrative, I must refer to an anticipation in the third volume of the Decline and Fall, which in a single note (p
234, note 25) accumulates nearly 300,000 heads of the monuments of his cruelty Except in Rowe’s play on the fifth of November, I did not expect to hear of
Timour’s amiable moderation (White’s preface, p 7) Yet I can excuse a generous
enthusiasm in the reader, and still more in the editor, of the Institutions.
627 Consult the last chapters of Sherefeddin and Arabshah, and M De
Guignes, (Hist des Huns, tom iv l xx) Fraser’s History of Nadir Shah, (p 1–
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people. A fragment of the empire was upheld with some
glory by Sharokh, his youngest son; but after his decease, the
scene was again involved in darkness and blood; and before
the end of a century, Transoxiana and Persia were trampled
by the Uzbeks from the north, and the Turkmans of the black
and white sheep. The race of Timour would have been extinct, if a hero, his descendant in the fifth degree, had not fled
before the Uzbek arms to the conquest of Hindostan. His successors (the great Moguls628 ) extended their sway from the
mountains of Cashmir to Cape Comorin, and from Candahar
to the Gulf of Bengal. Since the reign of Aurungzebe, their
empire had been dissolved; their treasures of Delhi have been
rifled by a Persian robber; and the richest of their kingdoms
is now possessed by a company of Christian merchants, of a
remote island in the Northern Ocean.
Far different was the fate of the Ottoman monarchy. The
massy trunk was bent to the ground, but no sooner did the
hurricane pass away, than it again rose with fresh vigor and
more lively vegetation. When Timour, in every sense, had
evacuated Anatolia, he left the cities without a palace, a treasure, or a king. The open country was overspread with
hordes of shepherds and robbers of Tartar or Turkman origin;
the recent conquests of Bajazet were restored to the emirs, one
of whom, in base revenge, demolished his sepulchre; and his
five sons were eager, by civil discord, to consume the remnant
of their patrimony. I shall enumerate their names in the order
of their age and actions.629 1. It is doubtful, whether I relate
the story of the true Mustapha, or of an impostor who per62) The story of Timour’s descendants is imperfectly told; and the second and
third parts of Sherefeddin are unknown.
628 Shah Allum, the present Mogul, is in the fourteenth degree from Timour,
by Miran Shah, his third son See the second volume of Dow’s History of Hindostan.
629 The civil wars, from the death of Bajazet to that of Mustapha, are related,
according to the Turks, by Demetrius Cantemir, (p 58–82) Of the Greeks, Chalcondyles, (l iv and v,) Phranza, (l i c 30–32,) and Ducas, (c 18–27,) the last is the
most copious and best informed.
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sonated that lost prince. He fought by his father’s side in the
battle of Angora: but when the captive sultan was permitted
to inquire for his children, Mousa alone could be found; and
the Turkish historians, the slaves of the triumphant faction,
are persuaded that his brother was confounded among the
slain. If Mustapha escaped from that disastrous field, he was
concealed twelve years from his friends and enemies; till he
emerged in Thessaly, and was hailed by a numerous party,
as the son and successor of Bajazet. His first defeat would
have been his last, had not the true, or false, Mustapha been
saved by the Greeks, and restored, after the decease of his
brother Mahomet, to liberty and empire. A degenerate mind
seemed to argue his spurious birth; and if, on the throne of
Adrianople, he was adored as the Ottoman sultan, his flight,
his fetters, and an ignominious gibbet, delivered the impostor to popular contempt. A similar character and claim was
asserted by several rival pretenders: thirty persons are said
to have suffered under the name of Mustapha; and these
frequent executions may perhaps insinuate, that the Turkish court was not perfectly secure of the death of the lawful
prince. 2. After his father’s captivity, Isa630 reigned for some
time in the neighborhood of Angora, Sinope, and the Black
Sea; and his ambassadors were dismissed from the presence
of Timour with fair promises and honorable gifts. But their
master was soon deprived of his province and life, by a jealous brother, the sovereign of Amasia; and the final event suggested a pious allusion, that the law of Moses and Jesus, of
Isa and Mousa, had been abrogated by the greater Mahomet.
3. Soliman is not numbered in the list of the Turkish emperors: yet he checked the victorious progress of the Moguls;
and after their departure, united for a while the thrones of
Adrianople and Boursa. In war he was brave, active, and
fortunate; his courage was softened by clemency; but it was
630 Arabshah, (tom ii c 26,) whose testimony on this occasion is weighty and
valuable The existence of Isa (unknown to the Turks) is likewise confirmed by
Sherefeddin, (l v c 57).
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likewise inflamed by presumption, and corrupted by intemperance and idleness. He relaxed the nerves of discipline, in
a government where either the subject or the sovereign must
continually tremble: his vices alienated the chiefs of the army
and the law; and his daily drunkenness, so contemptible in
a prince and a man, was doubly odious in a disciple of the
prophet. In the slumber of intoxication he was surprised by
his brother Mousa; and as he fled from Adrianople towards
the Byzantine capital, Soliman was overtaken and slain in a
bath,631 after a reign of seven years and ten months. 4. The investiture of Mousa degraded him as the slave of the Moguls:
his tributary kingdom of Anatolia was confined within a narrow limit, nor could his broken militia and empty treasury
contend with the hardy and veteran bands of the sovereign of
Romania. Mousa fled in disguise from the palace of Boursa;
traversed the Propontis in an open boat; wandered over the
Walachian and Servian hills; and after some vain attempts,
ascended the throne of Adrianople, so recently stained with
the blood of Soliman. In a reign of three years and a half, his
troops were victorious against the Christians of Hungary and
the Morea; but Mousa was ruined by his timorous disposition
and unseasonable clemency. After resigning the sovereignty
of Anatolia, he fell a victim to the perfidy of his ministers, and
the superior ascendant of his brother Mahomet. 5.The final
victory of Mahomet was the just recompense of his prudence
and moderation. Before his father’s captivity, the royal youth
had been intrusted with the government of Amasia, thirty
days’ journey from Constantinople, and the Turkish frontier
against the Christians of Trebizond and Georgia. The castle, in Asiatic warfare, was esteemed impregnable; and the
631 He escaped from the bath, and fled towards Constantinople Five mothers from a village, Dugundschi, whose inhabitants had suffered severely from
the exactions of his officers, recognized and followed him Soliman shot two of
them, the others discharged their arrows in their turn the sultan fell and his
head was cut off V Hammer, vol i p 349–M.
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city of Amasia,632 which is equally divided by the River Iris,
rises on either side in the form of an amphitheatre, and represents on a smaller scale the image of Bagdad. In his rapid
career, Timour appears to have overlooked this obscure and
contumacious angle of Anatolia; and Mahomet, without provoking the conqueror, maintained his silent independence,
and chased from the province the last stragglers of the Tartar host.633 He relieved himself from the dangerous neighborhood of Isa; but in the contests of their more powerful
brethren his firm neutrality was respected; till, after the triumph of Mousa, he stood forth the heir and avenger of the
unfortunate Soliman. Mahomet obtained Anatolia by treaty,
and Romania by arms; and the soldier who presented him
with the head of Mousa was rewarded as the benefactor of
his king and country. The eight years of his sole and peaceful
reign were usefully employed in banishing the vices of civil
discord, and restoring on a firmer basis the fabric of the Ottoman monarchy. His last care was the choice of two viziers,
Bajazet and Ibrahim,634 who might guide the youth of his son
Amurath; and such was their union and prudence, that they
concealed above forty days the emperor’s death, till the arrival of his successor in the palace of Boursa. A new war was
kindled in Europe by the prince, or impostor, Mustapha; the
first vizier lost his army and his head; but the more fortunate Ibrahim, whose name and family are still revered, extinguished the last pretender to the throne of Bajazet, and closed
the scene of domestic hostility.
In these conflicts, the wisest Turks, and indeed the body
of the nation, were strongly attached to the unity of the em632 Arabshah, loc citat Abulfeda, Geograph tab xvii p 302 Busbequius, epist i
p 96, 97, in Itinere C P et Amasiano.
633 See his nine battles V Hammer, p 339–M.
634 The virtues of Ibrahim are praised by a contemporary Greek, (Ducas, c 25)
His descendants are the sole nobles in Turkey: they content themselves with
the administration of his pious foundations, are excused from public offices,
and receive two annual visits from the sultan, (Cantemir, p 76).
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pire; and Romania and Anatolia, so often torn asunder by
private ambition, were animated by a strong and invincible
tendency of cohesion. Their efforts might have instructed the
Christian powers; and had they occupied, with a confederate
fleet, the Straits of Gallipoli, the Ottomans, at least in Europe,
must have been speedily annihilated. But the schism of the
West, and the factions and wars of France and England, diverted the Latins from this generous enterprise: they enjoyed
the present respite, without a thought of futurity; and were
often tempted by a momentary interest to serve the common
enemy of their religion. A colony of Genoese,635 which had
been planted at Phocæa636 on the Ionian coast, was enriched
by the lucrative monopoly of alum;637 and their tranquillity,
under the Turkish empire, was secured by the annual payment of tribute. In the last civil war of the Ottomans, the
Genoese governor, Adorno, a bold and ambitious youth, embraced the party of Amurath; and undertook, with seven
stout galleys, to transport him from Asia to Europe. The sultan and five hundred guards embarked on board the admiral’s ship; which was manned by eight hundred of the bravest
Franks. His life and liberty were in their hands; nor can we,
without reluctance, applaud the fidelity of Adorno, who, in
the midst of the passage, knelt before him, and gratefully
accepted a discharge of his arrears of tribute. They landed
in sight of Mustapha and Gallipoli; two thousand Italians,
635 See Pachymer, (l v c 29,) Nicephorus Gregoras, (l ii c 1,) Sherefeddin, (l
v c 57,) and Ducas, (c 25) The last of these, a curious and careful observer, is
entitled, from his birth and station, to particular credit in all that concerns Ionia
and the islands Among the nations that resorted to New Phocæa, he mentions
the English; (‘Igglhnoi;) an early evidence of Mediterranean trade.
636 For the spirit of navigation, and freedom of ancient Phocæa, or rather the
Phocæans, consult the first book of Herodotus, and the Geographical Index of
his last and learned French translator, M Larcher (tom vii p 299).
637 Phocæa is not enumerated by Pliny (Hist Nat xxxv 52) among the places
productive of alum: he reckons Egypt as the first, and for the second the Isle
of Melos, whose alum mines are described by Tournefort, (tom i lettre iv,) a
traveller and a naturalist After the loss of Phocæa, the Genoese, in 1459, found
that useful mineral in the Isle of Ischia, (Ismael Bouillaud, ad Ducam, c 25).
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armed with lances and battle-axes, attended Amurath to the
conquest of Adrianople; and this venal service was soon repaid by the ruin of the commerce and colony of Phocæa.
If Timour had generously marched at the request, and to
the relief, of the Greek emperor, he might be entitled to the
praise and gratitude of the Christians.638 But a Mussulman,
who carried into Georgia the sword of persecution, and respected the holy warfare of Bajazet, was not disposed to pity
or succor the idolaters of Europe. The Tartar followed the
impulse of ambition; and the deliverance of Constantinople
was the accidental consequence. When Manuel abdicated the
government, it was his prayer, rather than his hope, that the
ruin of the church and state might be delayed beyond his unhappy days; and after his return from a western pilgrimage,
he expected every hour the news of the sad catastrophe. On a
sudden, he was astonished and rejoiced by the intelligence of
the retreat, the overthrow, and the captivity of the Ottoman.
Manuel639 immediately sailed from Modon in the Morea; ascended the throne of Constantinople, and dismissed his blind
competitor to an easy exile in the Isle of Lesbos. The ambassadors of the son of Bajazet were soon introduced to his presence; but their pride was fallen, their tone was modest: they
were awed by the just apprehension, lest the Greeks should
open to the Moguls the gates of Europe. Soliman saluted the
emperor by the name of father; solicited at his hands the government or gift of Romania; and promised to deserve his favor by inviolable friendship, and the restitution of Thessalonica, with the most important places along the Strymon,
638 The writer who has the most abused this fabulous generosity, is our ingenious Sir William Temple, (his Works, vol iii p 349, 350, octavo edition,) that
lover of exotic virtue After the conquest of Russia, &c, and the passage of the
Danube, his Tartar hero relieves, visits, admires, and refuses the city of Constantine His flattering pencil deviates in every line from the truth of history;
yet his pleasing fictions are more excusable than the gross errors of Cantemir.
639 For the reigns of Manuel and John, of Mahomet I and Amurath II, see the
Othman history of Cantemir, (p 70–95,) and the three Greeks, Chalcondyles,
Phranza, and Ducas, who is still superior to his rivals.
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the Propontis, and the Black Sea. The alliance of Soliman
exposed the emperor to the enmity and revenge of Mousa:
the Turks appeared in arms before the gates of Constantinople; but they were repulsed by sea and land; and unless the
city was guarded by some foreign mercenaries, the Greeks
must have wondered at their own triumph. But, instead of
prolonging the division of the Ottoman powers, the policy or
passion of Manuel was tempted to assist the most formidable
of the sons of Bajazet. He concluded a treaty with Mahomet,
whose progress was checked by the insuperable barrier of
Gallipoli: the sultan and his troops were transported over the
Bosphorus; he was hospitably entertained in the capital; and
his successful sally was the first step to the conquest of Romania. The ruin was suspended by the prudence and moderation of the conqueror: he faithfully discharged his own obligations and those of Soliman, respected the laws of gratitude
and peace; and left the emperor guardian of his two younger
sons, in the vain hope of saving them from the jealous cruelty of their brother Amurath. But the execution of his last
testament would have offended the national honor and religion; and the divan unanimously pronounced, that the royal
youths should never be abandoned to the custody and education of a Christian dog. On this refusal, the Byzantine councils were divided; but the age and caution of Manuel yielded
to the presumption of his son John; and they unsheathed
a dangerous weapon of revenge, by dismissing the true or
false Mustapha, who had long been detained as a captive and
hostage, and for whose maintenance they received an annual
pension of three hundred thousand aspers.640 At the door
640 The Turkish asper (from the Greek asproV) is, or was, a piece of white or
silver money, at present much debased, but which was formerly equivalent to
the 54th part, at least, of a Venetian ducat or sequin; and the 300,000 aspers, a
princely allowance or royal tribute, may be computed at 2500l sterling, (Leunclav Pandect Turc p 406–408) * Note: According to Von Hammer, this calculation is much too low The asper was a century before the time of which writes,
the tenth part of a ducat; for the same tribute which the Byzantine writers state
at 300,000 aspers the Ottomans state at 30,000 ducats, about 15000l Note, vol p
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of his prison, Mustapha subscribed to every proposal; and
the keys of Gallipoli, or rather of Europe, were stipulated as
the price of his deliverance. But no sooner was he seated on
the throne of Romania, than he dismissed the Greek ambassadors with a smile of contempt, declaring, in a pious tone,
that, at the day of judgment, he would rather answer for the
violation of an oath, than for the surrender of a Mussulman
city into the hands of the infidels. The emperor was at once
the enemy of the two rivals; from whom he had sustained,
and to whom he had offered, an injury; and the victory of
Amurath was followed, in the ensuing spring, by the siege of
Constantinople.641
The religious merit of subduing the city of the Cæsars attracted from Asia a crowd of volunteers, who aspired to the
crown of martyrdom: their military ardor was inflamed by
the promise of rich spoils and beautiful females; and the sultan’s ambition was consecrated by the presence and prediction of Seid Bechar, a descendant of the prophet,642 who arrived in the camp, on a mule, with a venerable train of five
hundred disciples. But he might blush, if a fanatic could
blush, at the failure of his assurances. The strength of the
walls resisted an army of two hundred thousand Turks; their
assaults were repelled by the sallies of the Greeks and their
foreign mercenaries; the old resources of defence were opposed to the new engines of attack; and the enthusiasm of
the dervis, who was snatched to heaven in visionary converse
with Mahomet, was answered by the credulity of the Christians, who beheld the Virgin Mary, in a violet garment, walk636–M.
641 For the siege of Constantinople in 1422, see the particular and contemporary narrative of John Cananus, published by Leo Allatius, at the end of his
edition of Acropolita, (p 188–199).
642 Cantemir, p 80 Cananus, who describes Seid Bechar, without naming him,
supposes that the friend of Mahomet assumed in his amours the privilege of a
prophet, and that the fairest of the Greek nuns were promised to the saint and
his disciples.
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ing on the rampart and animating their courage.643 After a
siege of two months, Amurath was recalled to Boursa by a
domestic revolt, which had been kindled by Greek treachery,
and was soon extinguished by the death of a guiltless brother.
While he led his Janizaries to new conquests in Europe and
Asia, the Byzantine empire was indulged in a servile and precarious respite of thirty years. Manuel sank into the grave;
and John Palæologus was permitted to reign, for an annual
tribute of three hundred thousand aspers, and the dereliction
of almost all that he held beyond the suburbs of Constantinople.
In the establishment and restoration of the Turkish empire,
the first merit must doubtless be assigned to the personal
qualities of the sultans; since, in human life, the most important scenes will depend on the character of a single actor. By
some shades of wisdom and virtue, they may be discriminated from each other; but, except in a single instance, a period of nine reigns, and two hundred and sixty-five years, is
occupied, from the elevation of Othman to the death of Soliman, by a rare series of warlike and active princes, who impressed their subjects with obedience and their enemies with
terror. Instead of the slothful luxury of the seraglio, the heirs
of royalty were educated in the council and the field: from
early youth they were intrusted by their fathers with the command of provinces and armies; and this manly institution,
which was often productive of civil war, must have essentially contributed to the discipline and vigor of the monarchy. The Ottomans cannot style themselves, like the Arabian
caliphs, the descendants or successors of the apostle of God;
and the kindred which they claim with the Tartar khans of the
house of Zingis appears to be founded in flattery rather than
in truth.644 Their origin is obscure; but their sacred and inde643 For this miraculous apparition, Cananus appeals to the Mussulman saint;
but who will bear testimony for Seid Bechar?.
644 See Ricaut, (l i c 13) The Turkish sultans assume the title of khan Yet Abulghazi is ignorant of his Ottoman cousins.
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feasible right, which no time can erase, and no violence can
infringe, was soon and unalterably implanted in the minds
of their subjects. A weak or vicious sultan may be deposed
and strangled; but his inheritance devolves to an infant or an
idiot: nor has the most daring rebel presumed to ascend the
throne of his lawful sovereign.645
While the transient dynasties of Asia have been continually subverted by a crafty vizier in the palace, or a victorious
general in the camp, the Ottoman succession has been confirmed by the practice of five centuries, and is now incorporated with the vital principle of the Turkish nation.
To the spirit and constitution of that nation, a strong and
singular influence may, however, be ascribed. The primitive
subjects of Othman were the four hundred families of wandering Turkmans, who had followed his ancestors from the
Oxus to the Sangar; and the plains of Anatolia are still covered with the white and black tents of their rustic brethren.
But this original drop was dissolved in the mass of voluntary
and vanquished subjects, who, under the name of Turks, are
united by the common ties of religion, language, and manners. In the cities, from Erzeroum to Belgrade, that national
appellation is common to all the Moslems, the first and most
honorable inhabitants; but they have abandoned, at least in
Romania, the villages, and the cultivation of the land, to the
Christian peasants. In the vigorous age of the Ottoman government, the Turks were themselves excluded from all civil
and military honors; and a servile class, an artificial people,
was raised by the discipline of education to obey, to conquer,
645 The third grand vizier of the name of Kiuperli, who was slain at the battle
of Salankanen in 1691, (Cantemir, p 382,) presumed to say that all the successors
of Soliman had been fools or tyrants, and that it was time to abolish the race,
(Marsigli Stato Militaire, &c, p 28) This political heretic was a good Whig, and
justified against the French ambassador the revolution of England, (Mignot,
Hist des Ottomans, tom iii p 434) His presumption condemns the singular exception of continuing offices in the same family.
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and to command.646 From the time of Orchan and the first
Amurath, the sultans were persuaded that a government of
the sword must be renewed in each generation with new soldiers; and that such soldiers must be sought, not in effeminate Asia, but among the hardy and warlike natives of Europe. The provinces of Thrace, Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria,
and Servia, became the perpetual seminary of the Turkish
army; and when the royal fifth of the captives was diminished by conquest, an inhuman tax of the fifth child, or of every fifth year, was rigorously levied on the Christian families.
At the age of twelve or fourteen years, the most robust youths
were torn from their parents; their names were enrolled in a
book; and from that moment they were clothed, taught, and
maintained, for the public service. According to the promise
of their appearance, they were selected for the royal schools
of Boursa, Pera, and Adrianople, intrusted to the care of the
bashaws, or dispersed in the houses of the Anatolian peasantry. It was the first care of their masters to instruct them in
the Turkish language: their bodies were exercised by every
labor that could fortify their strength; they learned to wrestle, to leap, to run, to shoot with the bow, and afterwards with
the musket; till they were drafted into the chambers and companies of the Janizaries, and severely trained in the military
or monastic discipline of the order. The youths most conspicuous for birth, talents, and beauty, were admitted into
the inferior class of Agiamoglans, or the more liberal rank of
Ichoglans, of whom the former were attached to the palace,
and the latter to the person, of the prince. In four successive
schools, under the rod of the white eunuchs, the arts of horsemanship and of darting the javelin were their daily exercise,
while those of a more studious cast applied themselves to the
study of the Koran, and the knowledge of the Arabic and Persian tongues. As they advanced in seniority and merit, they
were gradually dismissed to military, civil, and even eccle646 Chalcondyles (l v) and Ducas (c 23) exhibit the rude lineament of the Ottoman policy, and the transmutation of Christian children into Turkish soldiers.
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PART III
siastical employments: the longer their stay, the higher was
their expectation; till, at a mature period, they were admitted
into the number of the forty agas, who stood before the sultan, and were promoted by his choice to the government of
provinces and the first honors of the empire.647 Such a mode
of institution was admirably adapted to the form and spirit
of a despotic monarchy. The ministers and generals were, in
the strictest sense, the slaves of the emperor, to whose bounty
they were indebted for their instruction and support. When
they left the seraglio, and suffered their beards to grow as
the symbol of enfranchisement, they found themselves in an
important office, without faction or friendship, without parents and without heirs, dependent on the hand which had
raised them from the dust, and which, on the slightest displeasure, could break in pieces these statues of glass, as they
were aptly termed by the Turkish proverb.648 In the slow
and painful steps of education, their characters and talents
were unfolded to a discerning eye: the man, naked and alone,
was reduced to the standard of his personal merit; and, if the
sovereign had wisdom to choose, he possessed a pure and
boundless liberty of choice. The Ottoman candidates were
trained by the virtues of abstinence to those of action; by the
habits of submission to those of command. A similar spirit
was diffused among the troops; and their silence and sobriety, their patience and modesty, have extorted the reluctant
praise of their Christian enemies.649 Nor can the victory appear doubtful, if we compare the discipline and exercise of
the Janizaries with the pride of birth, the independence of
chivalry, the ignorance of the new levies, the mutinous tem647 This sketch of the Turkish education and discipline is chiefly borrowed
from Ricaut’s State of the Ottoman Empire, the Stato Militaire del’ Imperio Ottomano of Count Marsigli, (in Haya, 1732, in folio,) and a description of the
Seraglio, approved by Mr Greaves himself, a curious traveller, and inserted in
the second volume of his works.
648 From the series of cxv viziers, till the siege of Vienna, (Marsigli, p 13,) their
place may be valued at three years and a half purchase.
649 See the entertaining and judicious letters of Busbequius.
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PART III
per of the veterans, and the vices of intemperance and disorder, which so long contaminated the armies of Europe.
The only hope of salvation for the Greek empire, and the
adjacent kingdoms, would have been some more powerful
weapon, some discovery in the art of war, that would give
them a decisive superiority over their Turkish foes. Such a
weapon was in their hands; such a discovery had been made
in the critical moment of their fate. The chemists of China or
Europe had found, by casual or elaborate experiments, that a
mixture of saltpetre, sulphur, and charcoal, produces, with a
spark of fire, a tremendous explosion. It was soon observed,
that if the expansive force were compressed in a strong tube,
a ball of stone or iron might be expelled with irresistible and
destructive velocity. The precise æra of the invention and application of gunpowder650 is involved in doubtful traditions
and equivocal language; yet we may clearly discern, that it
was known before the middle of the fourteenth century; and
that before the end of the same, the use of artillery in battles and sieges, by sea and land, was familiar to the states
of Germany, Italy, Spain, France, and England.651 The pri650 The first and second volumes of Dr Watson’s Chemical Essays contain two
valuable discourses on the discovery and composition of gunpowder.
651 On this subject modern testimonies cannot be trusted The original passages are collected by Ducange, (Gloss Latin tom i p 675, Bombarda) But in the
early doubtful twilight, the name, sound, fire, and effect, that seem to express
our artillery, may be fairly interpreted of the old engines and the Greek fire
For the English cannon at Crecy, the authority of John Villani (Chron l xii c 65)
must be weighed against the silence of Froissard Yet Muratori (Antiquit Italiæ
Medii Ævi, tom ii Dissert xxvi p 514, 515) has produced a decisive passage from
Petrarch, (De Remediis utriusque Fortunæ Dialog,) who, before the year 1344,
execrates this terrestrial thunder, nuper rara, nunc communis * Note: Mr Hallam
makes the following observation on the objection thrown our by Gibbon: “The
positive testimony of Villani, who died within two years afterwards, and had
manifestly obtained much information as to the great events passing in France,
cannot be rejected He ascribes a material effect to the cannon of Edward, Colpi
delle bombarde, which I suspect, from his strong expressions, had not been employed before, except against stone walls It seems, he says, as if God thundered
con grande uccisione di genti e efondamento di cavalli” Middle Ages, vol i p
510–M.
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PART III
ority of nations is of small account; none could derive any
exclusive benefit from their previous or superior knowledge;
and in the common improvement, they stood on the same
level of relative power and military science. Nor was it possible to circumscribe the secret within the pale of the church;
it was disclosed to the Turks by the treachery of apostates
and the selfish policy of rivals; and the sultans had sense to
adopt, and wealth to reward, the talents of a Christian engineer. The Genoese, who transported Amurath into Europe,
must be accused as his preceptors; and it was probably by
their hands that his cannon was cast and directed at the siege
of Constantinople.652 The first attempt was indeed unsuccessful; but in the general warfare of the age, the advantage
was on their side, who were most commonly the assailants:
for a while the proportion of the attack and defence was suspended; and this thundering artillery was pointed against
the walls and towers which had been erected only to resist
the less potent engines of antiquity. By the Venetians, the
use of gunpowder was communicated without reproach to
the sultans of Egypt and Persia, their allies against the Ottoman power; the secret was soon propagated to the extremities of Asia; and the advantage of the European was confined
to his easy victories over the savages of the new world. If
we contrast the rapid progress of this mischievous discovery
with the slow and laborious advances of reason, science, and
the arts of peace, a philosopher, according to his temper, will
laugh or weep at the folly of mankind.
652 The Turkish cannon, which Ducas (c 30) first introduces before Belgrade,
(AD 1436,) is mentioned by Chalcondyles (l v p 123) in 1422, at the siege of
Constantinople.
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Chapter LXVI
U NION O F T HE G REEK A ND L ATIN
C HURCHES
Part I
Applications Of The Eastern Emperors To The
Popes.–
Visits To The West, Of John The First, Manuel, And
John The Second, Palæologus.–
Union Of The Greek And Latin Churches, Promoted By The Council Of Basil,
And Concluded At Ferrara And Florence.–
State Of Literature At Constantinople.–
Its Revival In Italy By The Greek Fugitives.–
Curiosity And Emulation Of The Latins.
the four last centuries of the Greek emperors, their
Imayfriendly
or hostile aspect towards the pope and the Latins
be observed as the thermometer of their prosperity or
N
distress; as the scale of the rise and fall of the Barbarian dynasties. When the Turks of the house of Seljuk pervaded Asia,
and threatened Constantinople, we have seen, at the council
of Placentia, the suppliant ambassadors of Alexius imploring
the protection of the common father of the Christians. No
sooner had the arms of the French pilgrims removed the sultan from Nice to Iconium, than the Greek princes resumed, or
avowed, their genuine hatred and contempt for the schismatics of the West, which precipitated the first downfall of their
empire. The date of the Mogul invasion is marked in the soft
and charitable language of John Vataces. After the recovery
of Constantinople, the throne of the first Palæologus was encompassed by foreign and domestic enemies; as long as the
sword of Charles was suspended over his head, he basely
courted the favor of the Roman pontiff; and sacrificed to the
present danger his faith, his virtue, and the affection of his
subjects. On the decease of Michael, the prince and people
asserted the independence of their church, and the purity of
their creed: the elder Andronicus neither feared nor loved
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PART I
the Latins; in his last distress, pride was the safeguard of superstition; nor could he decently retract in his age the firm
and orthodox declarations of his youth. His grandson, the
younger Andronicus, was less a slave in his temper and situation; and the conquest of Bithynia by the Turks admonished
him to seek a temporal and spiritual alliance with the Western
princes. After a separation and silence of fifty years, a secret
agent, the monk Barlaam, was despatched to Pope Benedict
the Twelfth; and his artful instructions appear to have been
drawn by the master-hand of the great domestic.653 “Most
holy father,” was he commissioned to say, “the emperor is
not less desirous than yourself of a union between the two
churches: but in this delicate transaction, he is obliged to
respect his own dignity and the prejudices of his subjects.
The ways of union are twofold; force and persuasion. Of
force, the inefficacy has been already tried; since the Latins
have subdued the empire, without subduing the minds, of
the Greeks. The method of persuasion, though slow, is sure
and permanent. A deputation of thirty or forty of our doctors would probably agree with those of the Vatican, in the
love of truth and the unity of belief; but on their return, what
would be the use, the recompense, of such an agreement? the
scorn of their brethren, and the reproaches of a blind and obstinate nation. Yet that nation is accustomed to reverence the
general councils, which have fixed the articles of our faith;
and if they reprobate the decrees of Lyons, it is because the
Eastern churches were neither heard nor represented in that
arbitrary meeting. For this salutary end, it will be expedient, and even necessary, that a well-chosen legate should be
sent into Greece, to convene the patriarchs of Constantinople,
Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem; and, with their aid, to
653 This curious instruction was transcribed (I believe) from the Vatican
archives, by Odoricus Raynaldus, in his Continuation of the Annals of Baronius, (Romæ, 1646–1677, in x volumes in folio) I have contented myself with
the Abbé Fleury, (Hist Ecclésiastique tom xx p 1–8,) whose abstracts I have always found to be clear, accurate, and impartial.
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PART I
prepare a free and universal synod. But at this moment,” continued the subtle agent, “the empire is assaulted and endangered by the Turks, who have occupied four of the greatest
cities of Anatolia. The Christian inhabitants have expressed
a wish of returning to their allegiance and religion; but the
forces and revenues of the emperor are insufficient for their
deliverance: and the Roman legate must be accompanied, or
preceded, by an army of Franks, to expel the infidels, and
open a way to the holy sepulchre.” If the suspicious Latins
should require some pledge, some previous effect of the sincerity of the Greeks, the answers of Barlaam were perspicuous and rational. ”1. A general synod can alone consummate
the union of the churches; nor can such a synod be held till
the three Oriental patriarchs, and a great number of bishops,
are enfranchised from the Mahometan yoke. 2. The Greeks
are alienated by a long series of oppression and injury: they
must be reconciled by some act of brotherly love, some effectual succor, which may fortify the authority and arguments
of the emperor, and the friends of the union. 3. If some difference of faith or ceremonies should be found incurable, the
Greeks, however, are the disciples of Christ; and the Turks
are the common enemies of the Christian name. The Armenians, Cyprians, and Rhodians, are equally attacked; and it
will become the piety of the French princes to draw their
swords in the general defence of religion. 4. Should the subjects of Andronicus be treated as the worst of schismatics, of
heretics, of pagans, a judicious policy may yet instruct the
powers of the West to embrace a useful ally, to uphold a sinking empire, to guard the confines of Europe; and rather to
join the Greeks against the Turks, than to expect the union
of the Turkish arms with the troops and treasures of captive
Greece.” The reasons, the offers, and the demands, of Andronicus were eluded with cold and stately indifference. The
kings of France and Naples declined the dangers and glory of
a crusade; the pope refused to call a new synod to determine
old articles of faith; and his regard for the obsolete claims of
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PART I
the Latin emperor and clergy engaged him to use an offensive superscription,–“To the moderator654 of the Greeks, and
the persons who style themselves the patriarchs of the Eastern churches.” For such an embassy, a time and character
less propitious could not easily have been found. Benedict
the Twelfth655 was a dull peasant, perplexed with scruples,
and immersed in sloth and wine: his pride might enrich with
a third crown the papal tiara, but he was alike unfit for the
regal and the pastoral office.
After the decease of Andronicus, while the Greeks were
distracted by intestine war, they could not presume to agitate a general union of the Christians. But as soon as Cantacuzene had subdued and pardoned his enemies, he was
anxious to justify, or at least to extenuate, the introduction
of the Turks into Europe, and the nuptials of his daughter
with a Mussulman prince. Two officers of state, with a Latin
interpreter, were sent in his name to the Roman court, which
was transplanted to Avignon, on the banks of the Rhône, during a period of seventy years: they represented the hard necessity which had urged him to embrace the alliance of the
miscreants, and pronounced by his command the specious
and edifying sounds of union and crusade. Pope Clement
the Sixth,656 the successor of Benedict, received them with
654 The ambiguity of this title is happy or ingenious; and moderator, as synonymous to rector, gubernator, is a word of classical, and even Ciceronian, Latinity,
which may be found, not in the Glossary of Ducange, but in the Thesaurus of
Robert Stephens.
655 The first epistle (sine titulo) of Petrarch exposes the danger of the bark, and
the incapacity of the pilot Hæc inter, vino madidus, ævo gravis, ac soporifero
rore perfusus, jamjam nutitat, dormitat, jam somno præceps, atque (utinam solus) ruit Heu quanto felicius patrio terram sulcasset aratro, quam scalmum piscatorium ascendisset! This satire engages his biographer to weigh the virtues
and vices of Benedict XII which have been exaggerated by Guelphs and Ghibe
lines, by Papists and Protestants, (see Mémoires sur la Vie de Pétrarque, tom i
p 259, ii not xv p 13–16) He gave occasion to the saying, Bibamus papaliter.
656 See the original Lives of Clement VI in Muratori, (Script Rerum Italicarum,
tom iii P ii p 550–589;) Matteo Villani, (Chron l iii c 43, in Muratori, tom xiv p
186,) who styles him, molto cavallaresco, poco religioso; Fleury, (Hist Ecclés
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PART I
hospitality and honor, acknowledged the innocence of their
sovereign, excused his distress, applauded his magnanimity,
and displayed a clear knowledge of the state and revolutions
of the Greek empire, which he had imbibed from the honest accounts of a Savoyard lady, an attendant of the empress
Anne.657 If Clement was ill endowed with the virtues of a
priest, he possessed, however, the spirit and magnificence of
a prince, whose liberal hand distributed benefices and kingdoms with equal facility. Under his reign Avignon was the
seat of pomp and pleasure: in his youth he had surpassed
the licentiousness of a baron; and the palace, nay, the bedchamber of the pope, was adorned, or polluted, by the visits
of his female favorites. The wars of France and England were
adverse to the holy enterprise; but his vanity was amused
by the splendid idea; and the Greek ambassadors returned
with two Latin bishops, the ministers of the pontiff. On their
arrival at Constantinople, the emperor and the nuncios admired each other’s piety and eloquence; and their frequent
conferences were filled with mutual praises and promises,
by which both parties were amused, and neither could be
deceived. “I am delighted,” said the devout Cantacuzene,
“with the project of our holy war, which must redound to my
personal glory, as well as to the public benefit of Christendom. My dominions will give a free passage to the armies of
France: my troops, my galleys, my treasures, shall be consecrated to the common cause; and happy would be my fate,
could I deserve and obtain the crown of martyrdom. Words
are insufficient to express the ardor with which I sigh for the
reunion of the scattered members of Christ. If my death could
avail, I would gladly present my sword and my neck: if the
tom xx p 126;) and the Vie de Pétrarque, (tom ii p 42–45) The abbé de Sade
treats him with the most indulgence; but he is a gentleman as well as a priest.
657 Her name (most probably corrupted) was Zampea She had accompanied,
and alone remained with her mistress at Constantinople, where her prudence,
erudition, and politeness deserved the praises of the Greeks themselves, (Cantacuzen l i c 42).
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PART I
spiritual phnix could arise from my ashes, I would erect the
pile, and kindle the flame with my own hands.” Yet the Greek
emperor presumed to observe, that the articles of faith which
divided the two churches had been introduced by the pride
and precipitation of the Latins: he disclaimed the servile and
arbitrary steps of the first Palæologus; and firmly declared,
that he would never submit his conscience unless to the decrees of a free and universal synod. “The situation of the
times,” continued he, “will not allow the pope and myself to
meet either at Rome or Constantinople; but some maritime
city may be chosen on the verge of the two empires, to unite
the bishops, and to instruct the faithful, of the East and West.”
The nuncios seemed content with the proposition; and Cantacuzene affects to deplore the failure of his hopes, which
were soon overthrown by the death of Clement, and the different temper of his successor. His own life was prolonged,
but it was prolonged in a cloister; and, except by his prayers,
the humble monk was incapable of directing the counsels of
his pupil or the state.658
Yet of all the Byzantine princes, that pupil, John Palæologus, was the best disposed to embrace, to believe, and to
obey, the shepherd of the West. His mother, Anne of Savoy,
was baptized in the bosom of the Latin church: her marriage with Andronicus imposed a change of name, of apparel, and of worship, but her heart was still faithful to her
country and religion: she had formed the infancy of her son,
and she governed the emperor, after his mind, or at least his
stature, was enlarged to the size of man. In the first year
of his deliverance and restoration, the Turks were still masters of the Hellespont; the son of Cantacuzene was in arms at
Adrianople; and Palæologus could depend neither on himself nor on his people. By his mother’s advice, and in the
hope of foreign aid, he abjured the rights both of the church
658 See this whole negotiation in Cantacuzene, (l iv c 9,) who, amidst the
praises and virtues which he bestows on himself, reveals the uneasiness of a
guilty conscience.
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PART I
and state; and the act of slavery,659 subscribed in purple ink,
and sealed with the golden bull, was privately intrusted to
an Italian agent. The first article of the treaty is an oath of
fidelity and obedience to Innocent the Sixth and his successors, the supreme pontiffs of the Roman and Catholic church.
The emperor promises to entertain with due reverence their
legates and nuncios; to assign a palace for their residence,
and a temple for their worship; and to deliver his second son
Manuel as the hostage of his faith. For these condescensions
he requires a prompt succor of fifteen galleys, with five hundred men at arms, and a thousand archers, to serve against
his Christian and Mussulman enemies. Palæologus engages
to impose on his clergy and people the same spiritual yoke;
but as the resistance of the Greeks might be justly foreseen,
he adopts the two effectual methods of corruption and education. The legate was empowered to distribute the vacant
benefices among the ecclesiastics who should subscribe the
creed of the Vatican: three schools were instituted to instruct
the youth of Constantinople in the language and doctrine of
the Latins; and the name of Andronicus, the heir of the empire, was enrolled as the first student. Should he fail in the
measures of persuasion or force, Palæologus declares himself unworthy to reign; transferred to the pope all regal and
paternal authority; and invests Innocent with full power to
regulate the family, the government, and the marriage, of his
son and successor. But this treaty was neither executed nor
published: the Roman galleys were as vain and imaginary as
the submission of the Greeks; and it was only by the secrecy
that their sovereign escaped the dishonor of this fruitless humiliation.
The tempest of the Turkish arms soon burst on his head;
and after the loss of Adrianople and Romania, he was enclosed in his capital, the vassal of the haughty Amurath, with
659 See this ignominious treaty in Fleury, (Hist Ecclés p 151–154,) from Raynaldus, who drew it from the Vatican archives It was not worth the trouble of a
pious forgery.
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PART I
the miserable hope of being the last devoured by the savage.
In this abject state, Palæologus embraced the resolution of
embarking for Venice, and casting himself at the feet of the
pope: he was the first of the Byzantine princes who had ever
visited the unknown regions of the West, yet in them alone
he could seek consolation or relief; and with less violation
of his dignity he might appear in the sacred college than at
the Ottoman Porte. After a long absence, the Roman pontiffs
were returning from Avignon to the banks of the Tyber: Urban the Fifth,660 of a mild and virtuous character, encouraged
or allowed the pilgrimage of the Greek prince; and, within
the same year, enjoyed the glory of receiving in the Vatican
the two Imperial shadows who represented the majesty of
Constantine and Charlemagne. In this suppliant visit, the
emperor of Constantinople, whose vanity was lost in his distress, gave more than could be expected of empty sounds and
formal submissions. A previous trial was imposed; and, in
the presence of four cardinals, he acknowledged, as a true
Catholic, the supremacy of the pope, and the double procession of the Holy Ghost. After this purification, he was introduced to a public audience in the church of St. Peter: Urban, in the midst of the cardinals, was seated on his throne;
the Greek monarch, after three genuflections, devoutly kissed
the feet, the hands, and at length the mouth, of the holy father, who celebrated high mass in his presence, allowed him
to lead the bridle of his mule, and treated him with a sumptuous banquet in the Vatican. The entertainment of Palæologus was friendly and honorable; yet some difference was
observed between the emperors of the East and West;661 nor
could the former be entitled to the rare privilege of chanting
660 See the two first original Lives of Urban V, (in Muratori, Script Rerum Italicarum, tom iii P ii p 623, 635,) and the Ecclesiastical Annals of Spondanus, (tom
i p 573, AD 1369, No 7,) and Raynaldus, (Fleury, Hist Ecclés tom xx p 223, 224)
Yet, from some variations, I suspect the papal writers of slightly magnifying the
genuflections of Palæologus.
661 Paullo minus quam si fuisset Imperator Romanorum Yet his title of Imperator Græcorum was no longer disputed, (Vit Urban V p 623).
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PART I
the gospel in the rank of a deacon.662 In favor of his proselyte, Urban strove to rekindle the zeal of the French king
and the other powers of the West; but he found them cold
in the general cause, and active only in their domestic quarrels. The last hope of the emperor was in an English mercenary, John Hawkwood,663 or Acuto, who, with a band of
adventurers, the white brotherhood, had ravaged Italy from
the Alps to Calabria; sold his services to the hostile states;
and incurred a just excommunication by shooting his arrows
against the papal residence. A special license was granted
to negotiate with the outlaw, but the forces, or the spirit, of
Hawkwood, were unequal to the enterprise: and it was for
the advantage, perhaps, of Palæologus to be disappointed of
succor, that must have been costly, that could not be effectual,
and which might have been dangerous.664 The disconsolate
Greek665 prepared for his return, but even his return was
impeded by a most ignominious obstacle. On his arrival at
662 It was confined to the successors of Charlemagne, and to them only on
Christmas-day On all other festivals these Imperial deacons were content to
serve the pope, as he said mass, with the book and the corporale Yet the abbé de
Sade generously thinks that the merits of Charles IV might have entitled him,
though not on the proper day, (AD 1368, November 1,) to the whole privilege
He seems to affix a just value on the privilege and the man, (Vie de Petrarque,
tom iii p 735).
663 Through some Italian corruptions, the etymology of Falcone in bosco, (Matteo Villani, l xi c 79, in Muratori, tom xv p 746,) suggests the English word Hawkwood, the true name of our adventurous countryman, (Thomas Walsingham,
Hist Anglican inter Scriptores Camdeni, p 184) After two-and-twenty victories,
and one defeat, he died, in 1394, general of the Florentines, and was buried
with such honors as the republic has not paid to Dante or Petrarch, (Muratori,
Annali d’Italia, tom xii p 212–371).
664 This torrent of English (by birth or service) overflowed from France into
Italy after the peace of Bretigny in 1630 Yet the exclamation of Muratori (Annali,
tom xii p 197) is rather true than civil “Ci mancava ancor questo, che dopo
essere calpestrata l’Italia da tanti masnadieri Tedeschi ed Ungheri, venissero
fin dall’ Inghliterra nuovi cani a finire di divorarla”.
665 Chalcondyles, l i p 25, 26 The Greek supposes his journey to the king of
France, which is sufficiently refuted by the silence of the national historians
Nor am I much more inclined to believe, that Palæologus departed from Italy,
valde bene consolatus et contentus, (Vit Urban V p 623).
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Venice, he had borrowed large sums at exorbitant usury; but
his coffers were empty, his creditors were impatient, and his
person was detained as the best security for the payment. His
eldest son, Andronicus, the regent of Constantinople, was repeatedly urged to exhaust every resource; and even by stripping the churches, to extricate his father from captivity and
disgrace. But the unnatural youth was insensible of the disgrace, and secretly pleased with the captivity of the emperor:
the state was poor, the clergy were obstinate; nor could some
religious scruple be wanting to excuse the guilt of his indifference and delay. Such undutiful neglect was severely reproved by the piety of his brother Manuel, who instantly sold
or mortgaged all that he possessed, embarked for Venice, relieved his father, and pledged his own freedom to be responsible for the debt. On his return to Constantinople, the parent
and king distinguished his two sons with suitable rewards;
but the faith and manners of the slothful Palæologus had not
been improved by his Roman pilgrimage; and his apostasy or
conversion, devoid of any spiritual or temporal effects, was
speedily forgotten by the Greeks and Latins.666
Thirty years after the return of Palæologus, his son and
successor, Manuel, from a similar motive, but on a larger
scale, again visited the countries of the West. In a preceding
chapter I have related his treaty with Bajazet, the violation
of that treaty, the siege or blockade of Constantinople, and
the French succor under the command of the gallant Boucicault.667 By his ambassadors, Manuel had solicited the Latin
powers; but it was thought that the presence of a distressed
monarch would draw tears and supplies from the hardest
Barbarians;668 and the marshal who advised the journey pre666 His return in 1370, and the coronation of Manuel, Sept 25, 1373, (Ducange,
Fam Byzant p 241,) leaves some intermediate æra for the conspiracy and punishment of Andronicus.
667 Mémoires de Boucicault, P i c 35, 36.
668 His journey into the west of Europe is slightly, and I believe reluctantly,
noticed by Chalcondyles (l ii c 44–50) and Ducas, (c 14).
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PART I
pared the reception of the Byzantine prince. The land was
occupied by the Turks; but the navigation of Venice was safe
and open: Italy received him as the first, or, at least, as the
second, of the Christian princes; Manuel was pitied as the
champion and confessor of the faith; and the dignity of his behavior prevented that pity from sinking into contempt. From
Venice he proceeded to Padua and Pavia; and even the duke
of Milan, a secret ally of Bajazet, gave him safe and honorable
conduct to the verge of his dominions.669 On the confines of
France670 the royal officers undertook the care of his person,
journey, and expenses; and two thousand of the richest citizens, in arms and on horseback, came forth to meet him as
far as Charenton, in the neighborhood of the capital. At the
gates of Paris, he was saluted by the chancellor and the parliament; and Charles the Sixth, attended by his princes and
nobles, welcomed his brother with a cordial embrace. The
successor of Constantine was clothed in a robe of white silk,
and mounted on a milk-white steed, a circumstance, in the
French ceremonial, of singular importance: the white color is
considered as the symbol of sovereignty; and, in a late visit,
the German emperor, after a haughty demand and a peevish
refusal, had been reduced to content himself with a black
courser. Manuel was lodged in the Louvre; a succession of
feasts and balls, the pleasures of the banquet and the chase,
were ingeniously varied by the politeness of the French, to
display their magnificence, and amuse his grief: he was indulged in the liberty of his chapel; and the doctors of the Sorbonne were astonished, and possibly scandalized, by the language, the rites, and the vestments, of his Greek clergy. But
the slightest glance on the state of the kingdom must teach
669 Muratori, Annali d’Italia, tom xii p 406 John Galeazzo was the first and
most powerful duke of Milan His connection with Bajazet is attested by Froissard; and he contributed to save and deliver the French captives of Nicopolis.
670 For the reception of Manuel at Paris, see Spondanus, (Annal Ecclés tom i
p 676, 677, AD 1400, No 5,) who quotes Juvenal des Ursins and the monk of St
Denys; and Villaret, (Hist de France, tom xii p 331–334,) who quotes nobody
according to the last fashion of the French writers.
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him to despair of any effectual assistance. The unfortunate
Charles, though he enjoyed some lucid intervals, continually
relapsed into furious or stupid insanity: the reins of government were alternately seized by his brother and uncle, the
dukes of Orleans and Burgundy, whose factious competition
prepared the miseries of civil war. The former was a gay
youth, dissolved in luxury and love: the latter was the father
of John count of Nevers, who had so lately been ransomed
from Turkish captivity; and, if the fearless son was ardent to
revenge his defeat, the more prudent Burgundy was content
with the cost and peril of the first experiment. When Manuel
had satiated the curiosity, and perhaps fatigued the patience,
of the French, he resolved on a visit to the adjacent island. In
his progress from Dover, he was entertained at Canterbury
with due reverence by the prior and monks of St. Austin;
and, on Blackheath, King Henry the Fourth, with the English
court, saluted the Greek hero, (I copy our old historian,) who,
during many days, was lodged and treated in London as emperor of the East.671 But the state of England was still more
adverse to the design of the holy war. In the same year, the
hereditary sovereign had been deposed and murdered: the
reigning prince was a successful usurper, whose ambition
was punished by jealousy and remorse: nor could Henry of
Lancaster withdraw his person or forces from the defence of
a throne incessantly shaken by conspiracy and rebellion. He
pitied, he praised, he feasted, the emperor of Constantinople;
but if the English monarch assumed the cross, it was only to
appease his people, and perhaps his conscience, by the merit
671 A short note of Manuel in England is extracted by Dr Hody from a MS
at Lambeth, (de Græcis illustribus, p 14,) C P Imperator, diu variisque et
horrendis Paganorum insultibus coarctatus, ut pro eisdem resistentiam triumphalem perquireret, Anglorum Regem visitare decrevit, &c Rex (says Walsingham, p 364) nobili apparatû suscepit (ut decuit) tantum Heroa, duxitque
Londonias, et per multos dies exhibuit gloriose, pro expensis hospitii sui solvens, et eum respiciens tanto fastigio donativis He repeats the same in his Upodigma Neustriæ, (p 556).
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or semblance of his pious intention.672 Satisfied, however,
with gifts and honors, Manuel returned to Paris; and, after a
residence of two years in the West, shaped his course through
Germany and Italy, embarked at Venice, and patiently expected, in the Morea, the moment of his ruin or deliverance.
Yet he had escaped the ignominious necessity of offering his
religion to public or private sale. The Latin church was distracted by the great schism; the kings, the nations, the universities, of Europe were divided in their obedience between
the popes of Rome and Avignon; and the emperor, anxious to
conciliate the friendship of both parties, abstained from any
correspondence with the indigent and unpopular rivals. His
journey coincided with the year of the jubilee; but he passed
through Italy without desiring, or deserving, the plenary indulgence which abolished the guilt or penance of the sins of
the faithful. The Roman pope was offended by this neglect;
accused him of irreverence to an image of Christ; and exhorted the princes of Italy to reject and abandon the obstinate
schismatic.673
672 Shakspeare begins and ends the play of Henry IV with that prince’s vow
of a crusade, and his belief that he should die in Jerusalem.
673 This fact is preserved in the Historia Politica, AD 1391–1478, published by
Martin Crusius, (Turco Græcia, p 1–43) The image of Christ, which the Greek
emperor refused to worship, was probably a work of sculpture.
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Part II
the period of the crusades, the Greeks beheld with
D
astonishment and terror the perpetual stream of emigration that flowed, and continued to flow, from the unURING
known climates of their West. The visits of their last emperors removed the veil of separation, and they disclosed
to their eyes the powerful nations of Europe, whom they
no longer presumed to brand with the name of Barbarians.
The observations of Manuel, and his more inquisitive followers, have been preserved by a Byzantine historian of the
times:674 his scattered ideas I shall collect and abridge; and it
may be amusing enough, perhaps instructive, to contemplate
the rude pictures of Germany, France, and England, whose
ancient and modern state are so familiar to our minds. I.
Germany (says the Greek Chalcondyles) is of ample latitude
from Vienna to the ocean; and it stretches (a strange geography) from Prague in Bohemia to the River Tartessus, and the
Pyrenæan Mountains.675 The soil, except in figs and olives,
is sufficiently fruitful; the air is salubrious; the bodies of the
natives are robust and healthy; and these cold regions are seldom visited with the calamities of pestilence, or earthquakes.
After the Scythians or Tartars, the Germans are the most numerous of nations: they are brave and patient; and were they
united under a single head, their force would be irresistible.
674 The Greek and Turkish history of Laonicus Chalcondyles ends with the
winter of 1463; and the abrupt conclusion seems to mark, that he laid down his
pen in the same year We know that he was an Athenian, and that some contemporaries of the same name contributed to the revival of the Greek language
in Italy But in his numerous digressions, the modest historian has never introduced himself; and his editor Leunclavius, as well as Fabricius, (Bibliot Græc
tom vi p 474,) seems ignorant of his life and character For his descriptions of
Germany, France, and England, see l ii p 36, 37, 44–50.
675 I shall not animadvert on the geographical errors of Chalcondyles In this
instance, he perhaps followed, and mistook, Herodotus, (l ii c 33,) whose text
may be explained, (Herodote de Larcher, tom ii p 219, 220,) or whose ignorance
may be excused Had these modern Greeks never read Strabo, or any of their
lesser geographers?.
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By the gift of the pope, they have acquired the privilege of
choosing the Roman emperor;676 nor is any people more devoutly attached to the faith and obedience of the Latin patriarch. The greatest part of the country is divided among
the princes and prelates; but Strasburg, Cologne, Hamburgh,
and more than two hundred free cities, are governed by sage
and equal laws, according to the will, and for the advantage,
of the whole community. The use of duels, or single combats on foot, prevails among them in peace and war: their
industry excels in all the mechanic arts; and the Germans
may boast of the invention of gunpowder and cannon, which
is now diffused over the greatest part of the world. II. The
kingdom of France is spread above fifteen or twenty days’
journey from Germany to Spain, and from the Alps to the
British Ocean; containing many flourishing cities, and among
these Paris, the seat of the king, which surpasses the rest in
riches and luxury. Many princes and lords alternately wait
in his palace, and acknowledge him as their sovereign: the
most powerful are the dukes of Bretagne and Burgundy; of
whom the latter possesses the wealthy province of Flanders,
whose harbors are frequented by the ships and merchants of
our own, and the more remote, seas. The French are an ancient and opulent people; and their language and manners,
though somewhat different, are not dissimilar from those of
the Italians. Vain of the Imperial dignity of Charlemagne, of
their victories over the Saracens, and of the exploits of their
heroes, Oliver and Rowland,677 they esteem themselves the
676 A citizen of new Rome, while new Rome survived, would have scorned to
dignify the German ‘Rhx with titles of BasileuV or Autokratwr ‘Rwmaiwn: but
all pride was extinct in the bosom of Chalcondyles; and he describes the Byzantine prince, and his subject, by the proper, though humble, names of ’‘EllhneV
and BasileuV ‘Ellhnwn.
677 Most of the old romances were translated in the xivth century into French
prose, and soon became the favorite amusement of the knights and ladies in the
court of Charles VI If a Greek believed in the exploits of Rowland and Oliver,
he may surely be excused, since the monks of St Denys, the national historians,
have inserted the fables of Archbishop Turpin in their Chronicles of France.
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first of the western nations; but this foolish arrogance has
been recently humbled by the unfortunate events of their
wars against the English, the inhabitants of the British island.
III. Britain, in the ocean, and opposite to the shores of Flanders, may be considered either as one, or as three islands;
but the whole is united by a common interest, by the same
manners, and by a similar government. The measure of its
circumference is five thousand stadia: the land is overspread
with towns and villages: though destitute of wine, and not
abounding in fruit-trees, it is fertile in wheat and barley; in
honey and wool; and much cloth is manufactured by the inhabitants. In populousness and power, in richness and luxury, London,678 the metropolis of the isle, may claim a preeminence over all the cities of the West. It is situate on the
Thames, a broad and rapid river, which at the distance of
thirty miles falls into the Gallic Sea; and the daily flow and
ebb of the tide affords a safe entrance and departure to the
vessels of commerce. The king is head of a powerful and turbulent aristocracy: his principal vassals hold their estates by
a free and unalterable tenure; and the laws define the limits
of his authority and their obedience. The kingdom has been
often afflicted by foreign conquest and domestic sedition: but
the natives are bold and hardy, renowned in arms and victorious in war. The form of their shields or targets is derived
from the Italians, that of their swords from the Greeks; the
use of the long bow is the peculiar and decisive advantage
of the English. Their language bears no affinity to the idioms
of the Continent: in the habits of domestic life, they are not
easily distinguished from their neighbors of France: but the
most singular circumstance of their manners is their disregard of conjugal honor and of female chastity. In their mutual
678 Londinh de te poliV dunamei te proecousa tvn en th nhsw tauth pasvn
polewn, olbw te kai th allh eudaimonia oudemiaV tvn peoV esperan leipomenh
Even since the time of Fitzstephen, (the xiith century,) London appears to have
maintained this preeminence of wealth and magnitude; and her gradual increase has, at least, kept pace with the general improvement of Europe.
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visits, as the first act of hospitality, the guest is welcomed in
the embraces of their wives and daughters: among friends
they are lent and borrowed without shame; nor are the islanders offended at this strange commerce, and its inevitable
consequences.679 Informed as we are of the customs of Old
England and assured of the virtue of our mothers, we may
smile at the credulity, or resent the injustice, of the Greek,
who must have confounded a modest salute680 with a criminal embrace. But his credulity and injustice may teach an important lesson; to distrust the accounts of foreign and remote
nations, and to suspend our belief of every tale that deviates
from the laws of nature and the character of man.681682
After his return, and the victory of Timour, Manuel reigned
many years in prosperity and peace. As long as the sons of
Bajazet solicited his friendship and spared his dominions, he
was satisfied with the national religion; and his leisure was
employed in composing twenty theological dialogues for its
defence. The appearance of the Byzantine ambassadors at
the council of Constance,@@See Lenfant, Hist du Concile de
Constance, tom ii p 576; and or the ecclesiastical history of the
times, the Annals of Spondanus the Bibliothèque of Dupin,
679 If the double sense of the verb Kuw (osculor, and in utero gero) be equivocal, the context and pious horror of Chalcondyles can leave no doubt of his
meaning and mistake, (p 49) *.
680 Erasmus (Epist Fausto Andrelino) has a pretty passage on the English fashion of kissing strangers on their arrival and departure, from whence, however,
he draws no scandalous inferences.
681 Perhaps we may apply this remark to the community of wives among the
old Britons, as it is supposed by Cæsar and Dion, (Dion Cassius, l lxii tom ii p
1007,) with Reimar’s judicious annotation The Arreoy of Otaheite, so certain at
first, is become less visible and scandalous, in proportion as we have studied
the manners of that gentle and amorous people.
682 I can discover no “pious horror” in the plain manner in which Chalcondyles relates this strange usage. He says, oude aiscunun tovto feoei eautoiV kuesqai taV te gunaikaV autvn kai taV qugateraV, yet these are expression
beyond what would be used, if the ambiguous word kuesqai were taken in its
more innocent sense. Nor can the phrase parecontai taV eautvn gunaikaV en
toiV epithdeioiV well bear a less coarse interpretation. Gibbon is possibly right
as to the origin of this extraordinary mistake. –M.
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tom xii, and xxist and xxiid volumes of the History, or rather
the Continuation, of Fleury.683 From his early youth, George
Phranza, or Phranzes, was employed in the service of the
state and palace; and Hanckius (de Script Byzant P i c 40)
has collected his life from his own writings He was no more
than four-and-twenty years of age at the death of Manuel,
who recommended him in the strongest terms to his successor: Imprimis vero hunc Phranzen tibi commendo, qui
ministravit mihi fideliter et diligenter (Phranzes, l ii c i) Yet
the emperor John was cold, and he preferred the service of
the despots of Peloponnesus.684 See Phranzes, l ii c 13 While
so many manuscripts of the Greek original are extant in the
libraries of Rome, Milan, the Escurial, &c, it is a matter of
683 announces the restoration of the Turkish power, as well as of the Latin
church: the conquest of the sultans, Mahomet and Amurath, reconciled the
emperor to the Vatican; and the siege of Constantinople almost tempted him
to acquiesce in the double procession of the Holy Ghost. When Martin the
Fifth ascended without a rival the chair of St. Peter, a friendly intercourse of
letters and embassies was revived between the East and West. Ambition on
one side, and distress on the other, dictated the same decent language of charity and peace: the artful Greek expressed a desire of marrying his six sons to
Italian princesses; and the Roman, not less artful, despatched the daughter of
the marquis of Montferrat, with a company of noble virgins, to soften, by their
charms, the obstinacy of the schismatics. Yet under this mask of zeal, a discerning eye will perceive that all was hollow and insincere in the court and
church of Constantinople. According to the vicissitudes of danger and repose,
the emperor advanced or retreated; alternately instructed and disavowed his
ministers; and escaped from the importunate pressure by urging the duty of
inquiry, the obligation of collecting the sense of his patriarchs and bishops, and
the impossibility of convening them at a time when the Turkish arms were at
the gates of his capital. From a review of the public transactions it will appear
that the Greeks insisted on three successive measures, a succor, a council, and a
final reunion, while the Latins eluded the second, and only promised the first,
as a consequential and voluntary reward of the third. But we have an opportunity of unfolding the most secret intentions of Manuel, as he explained them
in a private conversation without artifice or disguise. In his declining age, the
emperor had associated John Palæologus, the second of the name, and the eldest of his sons, on whom he devolved the greatest part of the authority and
weight of government. One day, in the presence only of the historian Phranza,
684 his favorite chamberlain, he opened to his colleague and successor the true
principle of his negotiations with the pope.
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shame and reproach, that we should be reduced to the Latin
version, or abstract, of James Pontanus, (ad calcem Theophylact, Simocattæ: Ingolstadt, 1604,) so deficient in accuracy
and elegance, (Fabric Bibliot Græc tom vi p 615–620) *.685 See
Ducange, Fam Byzant p 243–248.686 The exact measure of the
Hexamilion, from sea to sea, was 3800 orgyiæ, or toises, of six
Greek feet, (Phranzes, l i c 38,) which would produce a Greek
mile, still smaller than that of 660 French toises, which is assigned by D’Anville, as still in use in Turkey Five miles are
commonly reckoned for the breadth of the isthmus See the
Travels of Spon, Wheeler and Chandler.687 The Greek text of
685 “Our last resource,” said Manuel, against the Turks, “is their fear of our
union with the Latins, of the warlike nations of the West, who may arm for our
relief and for their destruction. As often as you are threatened by the miscreants, present this danger before their eyes. Propose a council; consult on the
means; but ever delay and avoid the convocation of an assembly, which cannot
tend either to our spiritual or temporal emolument. The Latins are proud; the
Greeks are obstinate; neither party will recede or retract; and the attempt of a
perfect union will confirm the schism, alienate the churches, and leave us, without hope or defence, at the mercy of the Barbarians.” Impatient of this salutary
lesson, the royal youth arose from his seat, and departed in silence; and the
wise monarch (continued Phranza) casting his eyes on me, thus resumed his
discourse: “My son deems himself a great and heroic prince; but, alas! our
miserable age does not afford scope for heroism or greatness. His daring spirit
might have suited the happier times of our ancestors; but the present state requires not an emperor, but a cautious steward of the last relics of our fortunes.
Well do I remember the lofty expectations which he built on our alliance with
Mustapha; and much do I fear, that this rash courage will urge the ruin of our
house, and that even religion may precipitate our downfall.” Yet the experience and authority of Manuel preserved the peace, and eluded the council; till,
in the seventy-eighth year of his age, and in the habit of a monk, he terminated
his career, dividing his precious movables among his children and the poor, his
physicians and his favorite servants. Of his six sons,
686 Andronicus the Second was invested with the principality of Thessalonica,
and died of a leprosy soon after the sale of that city to the Venetians and its final
conquest by the Turks. Some fortunate incidents had restored Peloponnesus,
or the Morea, to the empire; and in his more prosperous days, Manuel had
fortified the narrow isthmus of six miles
687 with a stone wall and one hundred and fifty-three towers. The wall was
overthrown by the first blast of the Ottomans; the fertile peninsula might
have been sufficient for the four younger brothers, Theodore and Constantine,
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Phranzes was edited by F. C. Alter Vindobonæ, 1796. It has
been re-edited by Bekker for the new edition of the Byzantines, Bonn, 1838. –M.@
The eldest of the sons of Manuel, John Palæologus the Second, was acknowledged, after his father’s death, as the sole
emperor of the Greeks. He immediately proceeded to repudiate his wife, and to contract a new marriage with the princess
of Trebizond: beauty was in his eyes the first qualification of
an empress; and the clergy had yielded to his firm assurance,
that unless he might be indulged in a divorce, he would retire to a cloister, and leave the throne to his brother Constantine. The first, and in truth the only, victory of Palæologus,
was over a Jew,688 whom, after a long and learned dispute,
he converted to the Christian faith; and this momentous conquest is carefully recorded in the history of the times. But he
soon resumed the design of uniting the East and West; and,
regardless of his father’s advice, listened, as it should seem
with sincerity, to the proposal of meeting the pope in a general council beyond the Adriatic. This dangerous project was
encouraged by Martin the Fifth, and coldly entertained by his
successor Eugenius, till, after a tedious negotiation, the emperor received a summons from the Latin assembly of a new
character, the independent prelates of Basil, who styled themselves the representatives and judges of the Catholic church.
The Roman pontiff had fought and conquered in the cause
of ecclesiastical freedom; but the victorious clergy were soon
exposed to the tyranny of their deliverer; and his sacred character was invulnerable to those arms which they found so
keen and effectual against the civil magistrate. Their great
Demetrius and Thomas; but they wasted in domestic contests the remains of
their strength; and the least successful of the rivals were reduced to a life of
dependence in the Byzantine palace.
688 The first objection of the Jews is on the death of Christ: if it were voluntary,
Christ was a suicide; which the emperor parries with a mystery They then dispute on the conception of the Virgin, the sense of the prophecies, &c, (Phranzes,
l ii c 12, a whole chapter).
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charter, the right of election, was annihilated by appeals,
evaded by trusts or commendams, disappointed by reversionary grants, and superseded by previous and arbitrary
reservations.689 A public auction was instituted in the court
of Rome: the cardinals and favorites were enriched with the
spoils of nations; and every country might complain that the
most important and valuable benefices were accumulated on
the heads of aliens and absentees. During their residence at
Avignon, the ambition of the popes subsided in the meaner
passions of avarice690 and luxury: they rigorously imposed
on the clergy the tributes of first-fruits and tenths; but they
freely tolerated the impunity of vice, disorder, and corruption. These manifold scandals were aggravated by the great
schism of the West, which continued above fifty years. In
the furious conflicts of Rome and Avignon, the vices of the
rivals were mutually exposed; and their precarious situation
degraded their authority, relaxed their discipline, and multiplied their wants and exactions. To heal the wounds, and
restore the monarchy, of the church, the synods of Pisa and
Constance691 were successively convened; but these great assemblies, conscious of their strength, resolved to vindicate
the privileges of the Christian aristocracy. From a personal
sentence against two pontiffs, whom they rejected, and a
third, their acknowledged sovereign, whom they deposed,
689 In the treatise delle Materie Beneficiarie of Fra Paolo, (in the ivth volume
of the last, and best, edition of his works,) the papal system is deeply studied
and freely described Should Rome and her religion be annihilated, this golden
volume may still survive, a philosophical history, and a salutary warning.
690 Pope John XXII (in 1334) left behind him, at Avignon, eighteen millions
of gold florins, and the value of seven millions more in plate and jewels See
the Chronicle of John Villani, (l xi c 20, in Muratori’s Collection, tom xiii p
765,) whose brother received the account from the papal treasurers A treasure
of six or eight millions sterling in the xivth century is enormous, and almost
incredible.
691 A learned and liberal Protestant, M Lenfant, has given a fair history of the
councils of Pisa, Constance, and Basil, in six volumes in quarto; but the last
part is the most hasty and imperfect, except in the account of the troubles of
Bohemia.
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the fathers of Constance proceeded to examine the nature
and limits of the Roman supremacy; nor did they separate
till they had established the authority, above the pope, of a
general council. It was enacted, that, for the government and
reformation of the church, such assemblies should be held at
regular intervals; and that each synod, before its dissolution,
should appoint the time and place of the subsequent meeting.
By the influence of the court of Rome, the next convocation
at Sienna was easily eluded; but the bold and vigorous proceedings of the council of Basil692 had almost been fatal to
the reigning pontiff, Eugenius the Fourth. A just suspicion of
his design prompted the fathers to hasten the promulgation
of their first decree, that the representatives of the churchmilitant on earth were invested with a divine and spiritual
jurisdiction over all Christians, without excepting the pope;
and that a general council could not be dissolved, prorogued,
or transferred, unless by their free deliberation and consent.
On the notice that Eugenius had fulminated a bull for that
purpose, they ventured to summon, to admonish, to threaten,
to censure the contumacious successor of St. Peter. After
many delays, to allow time for repentance, they finally declared, that, unless he submitted within the term of sixty
days, he was suspended from the exercise of all temporal and
ecclesiastical authority. And to mark their jurisdiction over
the prince as well as the priest, they assumed the government of Avignon, annulled the alienation of the sacred patrimony, and protected Rome from the imposition of new taxes.
Their boldness was justified, not only by the general opinion of the clergy, but by the support and power of the first
monarchs of Christendom: the emperor Sigismond declared
himself the servant and protector of the synod; Germany and
692 The original acts or minutes of the council of Basil are preserved in the
public library, in twelve volumes in folio Basil was a free city, conveniently situate on the Rhine, and guarded by the arms of the neighboring and confederate Swiss In 1459, the university was founded by Pope Pius II, (Æneas Sylvius,)
who had been secretary to the council But what is a council, or a university, to
the presses o Froben and the studies of Erasmus?.
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France adhered to their cause; the duke of Milan was the enemy of Eugenius; and he was driven from the Vatican by an
insurrection of the Roman people. Rejected at the same time
by temporal and spiritual subjects, submission was his only
choice: by a most humiliating bull, the pope repealed his own
acts, and ratified those of the council; incorporated his legates
and cardinals with that venerable body; and seemed to resign
himself to the decrees of the supreme legislature. Their fame
pervaded the countries of the East: and it was in their presence that Sigismond received the ambassadors of the Turkish
sultan,693 who laid at his feet twelve large vases, filled with
robes of silk and pieces of gold. The fathers of Basil aspired
to the glory of reducing the Greeks, as well as the Bohemians, within the pale of the church; and their deputies invited
the emperor and patriarch of Constantinople to unite with an
assembly which possessed the confidence of the Western nations. Palæologus was not averse to the proposal; and his ambassadors were introduced with due honors into the Catholic
senate. But the choice of the place appeared to be an insuperable obstacle, since he refused to pass the Alps, or the sea of
Sicily, and positively required that the synod should be adjourned to some convenient city in Italy, or at least on the
Danube. The other articles of this treaty were more readily
stipulated: it was agreed to defray the travelling expenses of
the emperor, with a train of seven hundred persons,694 to remit an immediate sum of eight thousand ducats695 for the ac693 This Turkish embassy, attested only by Crantzius, is related with some
doubt by the annalist Spondanus, AD 1433, No 25, tom i p 824.
694 Syropulus, p 19 In this list, the Greeks appear to have exceeded the real
numbers of the clergy and laity which afterwards attended the emperor and
patriarch, but which are not clearly specified by the great ecclesiarch The 75,000
florins which they asked in this negotiation of the pope, (p 9,) were more than
they could hope or want.
695 I use indifferently the words ducat and florin, which derive their names,
the former from the dukes of Milan, the latter from the republic of Florence These
gold pieces, the first that were coined in Italy, perhaps in the Latin world, may
be compared in weight and value to one third of the English guinea.
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commodation of the Greek clergy; and in his absence to grant
a supply of ten thousand ducats, with three hundred archers
and some galleys, for the protection of Constantinople. The
city of Avignon advanced the funds for the preliminary expenses; and the embarkation was prepared at Marseilles with
some difficulty and delay.
In his distress, the friendship of Palæologus was disputed
by the ecclesiastical powers of the West; but the dexterous
activity of a monarch prevailed over the slow debates and
inflexible temper of a republic. The decrees of Basil continually tended to circumscribe the despotism of the pope, and to
erect a supreme and perpetual tribunal in the church. Eugenius was impatient of the yoke; and the union of the Greeks
might afford a decent pretence for translating a rebellious
synod from the Rhine to the Po. The independence of the
fathers was lost if they passed the Alps: Savoy or Avignon, to
which they acceded with reluctance, were described at Constantinople as situate far beyond the pillars of Hercules;696
the emperor and his clergy were apprehensive of the dangers of a long navigation; they were offended by a haughty
declaration, that after suppressing the new heresy of the Bohemians, the council would soon eradicate the old heresy of
the Greeks.697 On the side of Eugenius, all was smooth,
and yielding, and respectful; and he invited the Byzantine
monarch to heal by his presence the schism of the Latin, as
well as of the Eastern, church. Ferrara, near the coast of
the Adriatic, was proposed for their amicable interview; and
696 At the end of the Latin version of Phranzes, we read a long Greek epistle or declamation of George of Trebizond, who advises the emperor to prefer
Eugenius and Italy He treats with contempt the schismatic assembly of Basil,
the Barbarians of Gaul and Germany, who had conspired to transport the chair
of St Peter beyond the Alps; oi aqlioi (says he) se kai thn meta sou sunodon
exw tvn ‘Hrakleiwn sthlwn kai pera Gadhrwn exaxousi Was Constantinople
unprovided with a map?.
697 Syropulus (p 26–31) attests his own indignation, and that of his countrymen; and the Basil deputies, who excused the rash declaration, could neither
deny nor alter an act of the council.
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with some indulgence of forgery and theft, a surreptitious decree was procured, which transferred the synod, with its own
consent, to that Italian city. Nine galleys were equipped for
the service at Venice, and in the Isle of Candia; their diligence
anticipated the slower vessels of Basil: the Roman admiral
was commissioned to burn, sink, and destroy;698 and these
priestly squadrons might have encountered each other in the
same seas where Athens and Sparta had formerly contended
for the preeminence of glory. Assaulted by the importunity
of the factions, who were ready to fight for the possession of
his person, Palæologus hesitated before he left his palace and
country on a perilous experiment. His father’s advice still
dwelt on his memory; and reason must suggest, that since
the Latins were divided among themselves, they could never
unite in a foreign cause. Sigismond dissuaded the unreasonable adventure; his advice was impartial, since he adhered
to the council; and it was enforced by the strange belief, that
the German Cæsar would nominate a Greek his heir and successor in the empire of the West.699 Even the Turkish sultan was a counsellor whom it might be unsafe to trust, but
whom it was dangerous to offend. Amurath was unskilled
in the disputes, but he was apprehensive of the union, of the
Christians. From his own treasures, he offered to relieve the
wants of the Byzantine court; yet he declared with seeming
magnanimity, that Constantinople should be secure and inviolate, in the absence of her sovereign.700 The resolution
698 Condolmieri, the pope’s nephew and admiral, expressly declared, oti orismon eceipara tou Papa ina polemhsh opou an eurh ta katerga thV Sunodou,
kai ei dunhqh, katadush, kai ajanish The naval orders of the synod were less
peremptory, and, till the hostile squadrons appeared, both parties tried to conceal their quarrel from the Greeks.
699 Syropulus mentions the hopes of Palæologus, (p 36,) and the last advice
of Sigismond,(p 57) At Corfu, the Greek emperor was informed of his friend’s
death; had he known it sooner, he would have returned home,(p 79).
700 Phranzes himself, though from different motives, was of the advice of
Amurath, (l ii c 13) Utinam ne synodus ista unquam fuisset, si tantes offensiones et detrimenta paritura erat This Turkish embassy is likewise mentioned
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of Palæologus was decided by the most splendid gifts and
the most specious promises: he wished to escape for a while
from a scene of danger and distress and after dismissing with
an ambiguous answer the messengers of the council, he declared his intention of embarking in the Roman galleys. The
age of the patriarch Joseph was more susceptible of fear than
of hope; he trembled at the perils of the sea, and expressed
his apprehension, that his feeble voice, with thirty perhaps of
his orthodox brethren, would be oppressed in a foreign land
by the power and numbers of a Latin synod. He yielded to
the royal mandate, to the flattering assurance, that he would
be heard as the oracle of nations, and to the secret wish of
learning from his brother of the West, to deliver the church
from the yoke of kings.701 The five cross-bearers, or dignitaries, of St. Sophia, were bound to attend his person; and
one of these, the great ecclesiarch or preacher, Sylvester Syropulus,702 has composed a free and curious history703 of the
false union.704 Of the clergy that reluctantly obeyed the sumby Syropulus, (p 58;) and Amurath kept his word He might threaten, (p 125,
219,) but he never attacked, the city.
701 The reader will smile at the simplicity with which he imparted these hopes
to his favorites: toiauthn plhrojorian schsein hlpize kai dia tou Papa eqarrei eleuqervdai thn ekklhsian apo thV apoteqeishV autou douleiaV para tou
basilewV, (p 92) Yet it would have been difficult for him to have practised the
lessons of Gregory VII.
702 The Christian name of Sylvester is borrowed from the Latin calendar In
modern Greek, pouloV, as a diminutive, is added to the end of words: nor can
any reasoning of Creyghton, the editor, excuse his changing into Sguropulus,
(Sguros, fuscus,) the Syropulus of his own manuscript, whose name is subscribed with his own hand in the acts of the council of Florence Why might not
the author be of Syrian extraction?.
703 From the conclusion of the history, I should fix the date to the year 1444,
four years after the synod, when great ecclesiarch had abdicated his office, (section xii p 330–350) His passions were cooled by time and retirement; and, although Syropulus is often partial, he is never intemperate.
704 Vera historia unionis non ver inter Græcos et Latinos, (Haga Comitis, 1660, in
folio,) was first published with a loose and florid version, by Robert Creyghton,
chaplain to Charles II in his exile The zeal of the editor has prefixed a polemic
title, for the beginning of the original is wanting Syropulus may be ranked with
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mons of the emperor and the patriarch, submission was the
first duty, and patience the most useful virtue. In a chosen list
of twenty bishops, we discover the metropolitan titles of Heracleæ and Cyzicus, Nice and Nicomedia, Ephesus and Trebizond, and the personal merit of Mark and Bessarion who,
in the confidence of their learning and eloquence, were promoted to the episcopal rank. Some monks and philosophers
were named to display the science and sanctity of the Greek
church; and the service of the choir was performed by a select band of singers and musicians. The patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, appeared by their genuine or
fictitious deputies; the primate of Russia represented a national church, and the Greeks might contend with the Latins
in the extent of their spiritual empire. The precious vases of
St. Sophia were exposed to the winds and waves, that the
patriarch might officiate with becoming splendor: whatever
gold the emperor could procure, was expended in the massy
ornaments of his bed and chariot;705 and while they affected
to maintain the prosperity of their ancient fortune, they quarrelled for the division of fifteen thousand ducats, the first
alms of the Roman pontiff. After the necessary preparations,
John Palæologus, with a numerous train, accompanied by his
brother Demetrius, and the most respectable persons of the
church and state, embarked in eight vessels with sails and
oars which steered through the Turkish Straits of Gallipoli to
the Archipelago, the Morea, and the Adriatic Gulf.706
the best of the Byzantine writers for the merit of his narration, and even of his
style; but he is excluded from the orthodox collections of the councils.
705 Syropulus (p 63) simply expresses his intention in’ outw pompawn en’
‘ItaloiV megaV basileuV par ekeinvn nomizoito; and the Latin of Creyghton
may afford a specimen of his florid paraphrase Ut pompâ circumductus noster Imperator Italiæ populis aliquis deauratus Jupiter crederetur, aut Crsus ex
opulenta Lydia.
706 Although I cannot stop to quote Syropulus for every fact, I will observe
that the navigation of the Greeks from Constantinople to Venice and Ferrara is
contained in the ivth section, (p 67–100,) and that the historian has the uncommon talent of placing each scene before the reader’s eye.
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a tedious and troublesome navigation of seventyA
seven days, this religious squadron cast anchor before
Venice; and their reception proclaimed the joy and magnifFTER
icence of that powerful republic. In the command of the
world, the modest Augustus had never claimed such honors
from his subjects as were paid to his feeble successor by an independent state. Seated on the poop on a lofty throne, he received the visit, or, in the Greek style, the adoration of the doge
and senators.707 They sailed in the Bucentaur, which was accompanied by twelve stately galleys: the sea was overspread
with innumerable gondolas of pomp and pleasure; the air
resounded with music and acclamations; the mariners, and
even the vessels, were dressed in silk and gold; and in all the
emblems and pageants, the Roman eagles were blended with
the lions of St. Mark. The triumphal procession, ascending
the great canal, passed under the bridge of the Rialto; and
the Eastern strangers gazed with admiration on the palaces,
the churches, and the populousness of a city, that seems to
float on the bosom of the waves.708 They sighed to behold
the spoils and trophies with which it had been decorated after the sack of Constantinople. After a hospitable entertainment of fifteen days, Palæologus pursued his journey by land
and water from Venice to Ferrara; and on this occasion the
pride of the Vatican was tempered by policy to indulge the
ancient dignity of the emperor of the East. He made his entry on a black horse; but a milk-white steed, whose trappings
were embroidered with golden eagles, was led before him;
707 At the time of the synod, Phranzes was in Peloponnesus: but he received
from the despot Demetrius a faithful account of the honorable reception of the
emperor and patriarch both at Venice and Ferrara, (Dux sedentem Imperatorem
adorat,) which are more slightly mentioned by the Latins, (l ii c 14, 15, 16).
708 The astonishment of a Greek prince and a French ambassador (Mémoires
de Philippe de Comines, l vii c 18,) at the sight of Venice, abundantly proves
that in the xvth century it was the first and most splendid of the Christian cities
For the spoils of Constantinople at Venice, see Syropulus, (p 87).
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and the canopy was borne over his head by the princes of
Este, the sons or kinsmen of Nicholas, marquis of the city,
and a sovereign more powerful than himself.709 Palæologus
did not alight till he reached the bottom of the staircase: the
pope advanced to the door of the apartment; refused his proffered genuflection; and, after a paternal embrace, conducted
the emperor to a seat on his left hand. Nor would the patriarch descend from his galley, till a ceremony almost equal,
had been stipulated between the bishops of Rome and Constantinople. The latter was saluted by his brother with a kiss
of union and charity; nor would any of the Greek ecclesiastics
submit to kiss the feet of the Western primate. On the opening of the synod, the place of honor in the centre was claimed
by the temporal and ecclesiastical chiefs; and it was only by
alleging that his predecessors had not assisted in person at
Nice or Chalcedon, that Eugenius could evade the ancient
precedents of Constantine and Marcian. After much debate,
it was agreed that the right and left sides of the church should
be occupied by the two nations; that the solitary chair of St.
Peter should be raised the first of the Latin line; and that the
throne of the Greek emperor, at the head of his clergy, should
be equal and opposite to the second place, the vacant seat of
the emperor of the West.710
But as soon as festivity and form had given place to a more
serious treaty, the Greeks were dissatisfied with their journey, with themselves, and with the pope. The artful pencil of his emissaries had painted him in a prosperous state;
at the head of the princes and prelates of Europe, obedient
709 Nicholas III of Este reigned forty-eight years, (AD 1393–1441,) and was
lord of Ferrara, Modena, Reggio, Parma, Rovigo, and Commachio See his Life
in Muratori, (Antichità Estense, tom ii p 159–201).
710 The Latin vulgar was provoked to laughter at the strange dresses of the
Greeks, and especially the length of their garments, their sleeves, and their
beards; nor was the emperor distinguished, except by the purple color, and
his diadem or tiara, with a jewel on the top, (Hody de Græcis Illustribus, p
31) Yet another spectator confesses that the Greek fashion was piu grave e piu
degna than the Italian (Vespasiano in Vit Eugen IV in Muratori, tom xxv p 261).
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at his voice, to believe and to arm. The thin appearance of
the universal synod of Ferrara betrayed his weakness: and
the Latins opened the first session with only five archbishops, eighteen bishops, and ten abbots, the greatest part of
whom were the subjects or countrymen of the Italian pontiff. Except the duke of Burgundy, none of the potentates of
the West condescended to appear in person, or by their ambassadors; nor was it possible to suppress the judicial acts
of Basil against the dignity and person of Eugenius, which
were finally concluded by a new election. Under these circumstances, a truce or delay was asked and granted, till
Palæologus could expect from the consent of the Latins some
temporal reward for an unpopular union; and after the first
session, the public proceedings were adjourned above six
months. The emperor, with a chosen band of his favorites and
Janizaries, fixed his summer residence at a pleasant, spacious
monastery, six miles from Ferrara; forgot, in the pleasures of
the chase, the distress of the church and state; and persisted
in destroying the game, without listening to the just complaints of the marquis or the husbandman.711 In the mean
while, his unfortunate Greeks were exposed to all the miseries of exile and poverty; for the support of each stranger, a
monthly allowance was assigned of three or four gold florins;
and although the entire sum did not amount to seven hundred florins, a long arrear was repeatedly incurred by the
indigence or policy of the Roman court.712 They sighed for
711 For the emperor’s hunting, see Syropulus, (p 143, 144, 191) The pope had
sent him eleven miserable hacks; but he bought a strong and swift horse that
came from Russia The name of Janizaries may surprise; but the name, rather
than the institution, had passed from the Ottoman, to the Byzantine, court, and
is often used in the last age of the empire.
712 The Greeks obtained, with much difficulty, that instead of provisions,
money should be distributed, four florins per month to the persons of honorable rank, and three florins to their servants, with an addition of thirty more to
the emperor, twenty-five to the patriarch, and twenty to the prince, or despot,
Demetrius The payment of the first month amounted to 691 florins, a sum
which will not allow us to reckon above 200 Greeks of every condition (Syrop-
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a speedy deliverance, but their escape was prevented by a
triple chain: a passport from their superiors was required
at the gates of Ferrara; the government of Venice had engaged to arrest and send back the fugitives; and inevitable
punishment awaited them at Constantinople; excommunication, fines, and a sentence, which did not respect the sacerdotal dignity, that they should be stripped naked and publicly whipped.713 It was only by the alternative of hunger or
dispute that the Greeks could be persuaded to open the first
conference; and they yielded with extreme reluctance to attend from Ferrara to Florence the rear of a flying synod. This
new translation was urged by inevitable necessity: the city
was visited by the plague; the fidelity of the marquis might
be suspected; the mercenary troops of the duke of Milan were
at the gates; and as they occupied Romagna, it was not without difficulty and danger that the pope, the emperor, and the
bishops, explored their way through the unfrequented paths
of the Apennine.714
Yet all these obstacles were surmounted by time and policy.
The violence of the fathers of Basil rather promoted than injured the cause of Eugenius; the nations of Europe abhorred
the schism, and disowned the election, of Felix the Fifth,
who was successively a duke of Savoy, a hermit, and a pope;
and the great princes were gradually reclaimed by his competitor to a favorable neutrality and a firm attachment. The
legates, with some respectable members, deserted to the Roman army, which insensibly rose in numbers and reputation;
the council of Basil was reduced to thirty-nine bishops, and
ulus, p 104, 105) On the 20th October, 1438, there was an arrear of four months;
in April, 1439, of three; and of five and a half in July, at the time of the union, (p
172, 225, 271).
713 Syropulus (p 141, 142, 204, 221) deplores the imprisonment of the Greeks,
and the tyranny of the emperor and patriarch.
714 The wars of Italy are most clearly represented in the xiiith vol of the Annals
of Muratori The schismatic Greek, Syropulus, (p 145,) appears to have exaggerated the fear and disorder of the pope in his retreat from Ferrara to Florence,
which is proved by the acts to have been somewhat more decent and deliberate.
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three hundred of the inferior clergy;715 while the Latins of
Florence could produce the subscriptions of the pope himself,
eight cardinals, two patriarchs, eight archbishops, fifty two
bishops, and forty-five abbots, or chiefs of religious orders.
After the labor of nine months, and the debates of twentyfive sessions, they attained the advantage and glory of the
reunion of the Greeks. Four principal questions had been agitated between the two churches; 1. The use of unleavened
bread in the communion of Christ’s body. 2. The nature of
purgatory. 3. The supremacy of the pope. And, 4. The single or double procession of the Holy Ghost. The cause of either nation was managed by ten theological champions: the
Latins were supported by the inexhaustible eloquence of Cardinal Julian; and Mark of Ephesus and Bessarion of Nice were
the bold and able leaders of the Greek forces. We may bestow
some praise on the progress of human reason, by observing
that the first of these questions was now treated as an immaterial rite, which might innocently vary with the fashion of
the age and country. With regard to the second, both parties
were agreed in the belief of an intermediate state of purgation for the venial sins of the faithful; and whether their souls
were purified by elemental fire was a doubtful point, which
in a few years might be conveniently settled on the spot by
the disputants. The claims of supremacy appeared of a more
weighty and substantial kind; yet by the Orientals the Roman bishop had ever been respected as the first of the five
patriarchs; nor did they scruple to admit, that his jurisdiction
should be exercised agreeably to the holy canons; a vague
allowance, which might be defined or eluded by occasional
convenience. The procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father alone, or from the Father and the Son, was an article of
715 Syropulus is pleased to reckon seven hundred prelates in the council of
Basil The error is manifest, and perhaps voluntary That extravagant number
could not be supplied by all the ecclesiastics of every degree who were present
at the council, nor by all the absent bishops of the West, who, expressly or tacitly, might adhere to its decrees.
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faith which had sunk much deeper into the minds of men;
and in the sessions of Ferrara and Florence, the Latin addition of filioque was subdivided into two questions, whether
it were legal, and whether it were orthodox. Perhaps it may
not be necessary to boast on this subject of my own impartial
indifference; but I must think that the Greeks were strongly
supported by the prohibition of the council of Chalcedon,
against adding any article whatsoever to the creed of Nice, or
rather of Constantinople.716 In earthly affairs, it is not easy
to conceive how an assembly equal of legislators can bind
their successors invested with powers equal to their own.
But the dictates of inspiration must be true and unchangeable; nor should a private bishop, or a provincial synod, have
presumed to innovate against the judgment of the Catholic
church. On the substance of the doctrine, the controversy
was equal and endless: reason is confounded by the procession of a deity: the gospel, which lay on the altar, was silent;
the various texts of the fathers might be corrupted by fraud
or entangled by sophistry; and the Greeks were ignorant of
the characters and writings of the Latin saints.717 Of this at
least we may be sure, that neither side could be convinced
by the arguments of their opponents. Prejudice may be enlightened by reason, and a superficial glance may be rectified
by a clear and more perfect view of an object adapted to our
faculties. But the bishops and monks had been taught from
their infancy to repeat a form of mysterious words: their national and personal honor depended on the repetition of the
same sounds; and their narrow minds were hardened and inflamed by the acrimony of a public dispute.
716 The Greeks, who disliked the union, were unwilling to sally from this
strong fortress, (p 178, 193, 195, 202, of Syropulus) The shame of the Latins
was aggravated by their producing an old MS of the second council of Nice,
with filioque in the Nicene creed A palpable forgery! (p 173).
717 ‘WV egw (said an eminent Greek) otan eiV naon eiselqw Datinwn ou
proskunv tina tvn ekeise agiwn, epei oude gnwrizw tina, (Syropulus, p 109)
See the perplexity of the Greeks, (p 217, 218, 252, 253, 273).
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While they were most in a cloud of dust and darkness, the
Pope and emperor were desirous of a seeming union, which
could alone accomplish the purposes of their interview; and
the obstinacy of public dispute was softened by the arts of
private and personal negotiation. The patriarch Joseph had
sunk under the weight of age and infirmities; his dying voice
breathed the counsels of charity and concord, and his vacant benefice might tempt the hopes of the ambitious clergy.
The ready and active obedience of the archbishops of Russia
and Nice, of Isidore and Bessarion, was prompted and recompensed by their speedy promotion to the dignity of cardinals. Bessarion, in the first debates, had stood forth the
most strenuous and eloquent champion of the Greek church;
and if the apostate, the bastard, was reprobated by his country,718 he appears in ecclesiastical story a rare example of a
patriot who was recommended to court favor by loud opposition and well-timed compliance. With the aid of his two
spiritual coadjutors, the emperor applied his arguments to
the general situation and personal characters of the bishops,
and each was successively moved by authority and example.
Their revenues were in the hands of the Turks, their persons
in those of the Latins: an episcopal treasure, three robes and
forty ducats, was soon exhausted:719 the hopes of their return still depended on the ships of Venice and the alms of
Rome; and such was their indigence, that their arrears, the
payment of a debt, would be accepted as a favor, and might
operate as a bribe.720 The danger and relief of Constantinople
718 See the polite altercation of Marc and Bessarion in Syropulus, (p 257,) who
never dissembles the vices of his own party, and fairly praises the virtues of the
Latins.
719 For the poverty of the Greek bishops, see a remarkable passage of Ducas, (c
31) One had possessed, for his whole property, three old gowns, &c By teaching
one-and-twenty years in his monastery, Bessarion himself had collected forty
gold florins; but of these, the archbishop had expended twenty-eight in his
voyage from Peloponnesus, and the remainder at Constantinople, (Syropulus,
p 127).
720 Syropulus denies that the Greeks received any money before they had sub-
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might excuse some prudent and pious dissimulation; and it
was insinuated, that the obstinate heretics who should resist
the consent of the East and West would be abandoned in a
hostile land to the revenge or justice of the Roman pontiff.721
In the first private assembly of the Greeks, the formulary of
union was approved by twenty-four, and rejected by twelve,
members; but the five cross-bearers of St. Sophia, who aspired
to represent the patriarch, were disqualified by ancient discipline; and their right of voting was transferred to the obsequious train of monks, grammarians, and profane laymen.
The will of the monarch produced a false and servile unanimity, and no more than two patriots had courage to speak their
own sentiments and those of their country. Demetrius, the
emperor’s brother, retired to Venice, that he might not be witness of the union; and Mark of Ephesus, mistaking perhaps
his pride for his conscience, disclaimed all communion with
the Latin heretics, and avowed himself the champion and
confessor of the orthodox creed.722 In the treaty between the
two nations, several forms of consent were proposed, such as
might satisfy the Latins, without dishonoring the Greeks; and
they weighed the scruples of words and syllables, till the theological balance trembled with a slight preponderance in favor of the Vatican. It was agreed (I must entreat the attention
of the reader) that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father
and the Son, as from one principle and one substance; that
he proceeds by the Son, being of the same nature and substance, and that he proceeds from the Father and the Son, by
one spiration and production. It is less difficult to understand
scribed the art of union, (p 283:) yet he relates some suspicious circumstances;
and their bribery and corruption are positively affirmed by the historian Ducas.
721 The Greeks most piteously express their own fears of exile and perpetual slavery, (Syropul p 196;) and they were strongly moved by the emperor’s
threats, (p 260).
722 I had forgot another popular and orthodox protester: a favorite bound,
who usually lay quiet on the foot-cloth of the emperor’s throne but who barked
most furiously while the act of union was reading without being silenced by the
soothing or the lashes of the royal attendants, (Syropul p 265, 266).
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the articles of the preliminary treaty; that the pope should defray all the expenses of the Greeks in their return home; that
he should annually maintain two galleys and three hundred
soldiers for the defence of Constantinople: that all the ships
which transported pilgrims to Jerusalem should be obliged
to touch at that port; that as often as they were required, the
pope should furnish ten galleys for a year, or twenty for six
months; and that he should powerfully solicit the princes of
Europe, if the emperor had occasion for land forces.
The same year, and almost the same day, were marked
by the deposition of Eugenius at Basil; and, at Florence,
by his reunion of the Greeks and Latins. In the former
synod, (which he styled indeed an assembly of dæmons,) the
pope was branded with the guilt of simony, perjury, tyranny,
heresy, and schism;723 and declared to be incorrigible in his
vices, unworthy of any title, and incapable of holding any ecclesiastical office. In the latter, he was revered as the true and
holy vicar of Christ, who, after a separation of six hundred
years, had reconciled the Catholics of the East and West in
one fold, and under one shepherd. The act of union was subscribed by the pope, the emperor, and the principal members
of both churches; even by those who, like Syropulus,724 had
been deprived of the right of voting. Two copies might have
sufficed for the East and West; but Eugenius was not satisfied,
unless four authentic and similar transcripts were signed and
attested as the monuments of his victory.725 On a memorable
723 From the original Lives of the Popes, in Muratori’s Collection, (tom iii p ii
tom xxv,) the manners of Eugenius IV appear to have been decent, and even exemplary His situation, exposed to the world and to his enemies, was a restraint,
and is a pledge.
724 Syropulus, rather than subscribe, would have assisted, as the least evil, at
the ceremony of the union He was compelled to do both; and the great ecclesiarch poorly excuses his submission to the emperor, (p 290–292).
725 None of these original acts of union can at present be produced Of the ten
MSS that are preserved, (five at Rome, and the remainder at Florence, Bologna,
Venice, Paris, and London,) nine have been examined by an accurate critic,
(M de Brequigny,) who condemns them for the variety and imperfections of
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day, the sixth of July, the successors of St. Peter and Constantine ascended their thrones the two nations assembled in
the cathedral of Florence; their representatives, Cardinal Julian and Bessarion archbishop of Nice, appeared in the pulpit, and, after reading in their respective tongues the act of
union, they mutually embraced, in the name and the presence of their applauding brethren. The pope and his ministers then officiated according to the Roman liturgy; the creed
was chanted with the addition of filioque; the acquiescence of
the Greeks was poorly excused by their ignorance of the harmonious, but inarticulate sounds;726 and the more scrupulous Latins refused any public celebration of the Byzantine
rite. Yet the emperor and his clergy were not totally unmindful of national honor. The treaty was ratified by their consent:
it was tacitly agreed that no innovation should be attempted
in their creed or ceremonies: they spared, and secretly respected, the generous firmness of Mark of Ephesus; and, on
the decease of the patriarch, they refused to elect his successor, except in the cathedral of St. Sophia. In the distribution
of public and private rewards, the liberal pontiff exceeded
their hopes and his promises: the Greeks, with less pomp
and pride, returned by the same road of Ferrara and Venice;
and their reception at Constantinople was such as will be described in the following chapter.727 The success of the first
trial encouraged Eugenius to repeat the same edifying scenes;
and the deputies of the Armenians, the Maronites, the Jacobites of Syria and Egypt, the Nestorians and the Æthiopians,
were successively introduced, to kiss the feet of the Roman
pontiff, and to announce the obedience and the orthodoxy of
the Greek signatures Yet several of these may be esteemed as authentic copies,
which were subscribed at Florence, before (26th of August, 1439) the final separation of the pope and emperor, (Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions,
tom xliii p 287–311).
726 Hmin de wV ashmoi edokoun jwnai, (Syropul p 297).
727 In their return, the Greeks conversed at Bologna with the ambassadors
of England: and after some questions and answers, these impartial strangers
laughed at the pretended union of Florence, (Syropul p 307).
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the East. These Oriental embassies, unknown in the countries
which they presumed to represent,728 diffused over the West
the fame of Eugenius; and a clamor was artfully propagated
against the remnant of a schism in Switzerland and Savoy,
which alone impeded the harmony of the Christian world.
The vigor of opposition was succeeded by the lassitude of
despair: the council of Basil was silently dissolved; and Felix,
renouncing the tiara, again withdrew to the devout or delicious hermitage of Ripaille.729 A general peace was secured
by mutual acts of oblivion and indemnity: all ideas of reformation subsided; the popes continued to exercise and abuse
their ecclesiastical despotism; nor has Rome been since disturbed by the mischiefs of a contested election.730
The journeys of three emperors were unavailing for their
temporal, or perhaps their spiritual, salvation; but they were
productive of a beneficial consequence–the revival of the
Greek learning in Italy, from whence it was propagated to the
last nations of the West and North. In their lowest servitude
and depression, the subjects of the Byzantine throne were
still possessed of a golden key that could unlock the treasures of antiquity; of a musical and prolific language, that
gives a soul to the objects of sense, and a body to the abstrac728 So nugatory, or rather so fabulous, are these reunions of the Nestorians, Jacobites, &c, that I have turned over, without success, the Bibliotheca Orientalis
of Assemannus, a faithful slave of the Vatican.
729 Ripaille is situate near Thonon in Savoy, on the southern side of the Lake
of Geneva It is now a Carthusian abbey; and Mr Addison (Travels into Italy, vol
ii p 147, 148, of Baskerville’s edition of his works) has celebrated the place and
the founder Æneas Sylvius, and the fathers of Basil, applaud the austere life of
the ducal hermit; but the French and Italian proverbs most unluckily attest the
popular opinion of his luxury.
730 In this account of the councils of Basil, Ferrara, and Florence, I have consulted the original acts, which fill the xviith and xviiith tome of the edition
of Venice, and are closed by the perspicuous, though partial, history of Augustin Patricius, an Italian of the xvth century They are digested and abridged
by Dupin, (Bibliothèque Ecclés tom xii,) and the continuator of Fleury, (tom
xxii;) and the respect of the Gallican church for the adverse parties confines
their members to an awkward moderation.
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tions of philosophy. Since the barriers of the monarchy, and
even of the capital, had been trampled under foot, the various
Barbarians had doubtless corrupted the form and substance
of the national dialect; and ample glossaries have been composed, to interpret a multitude of words, of Arabic, Turkish,
Sclavonian, Latin, or French origin.731 But a purer idiom was
spoken in the court and taught in the college; and the flourishing state of the language is described, and perhaps embellished, by a learned Italian,732 who, by a long residence
and noble marriage,733 was naturalized at Constantinople
about thirty years before the Turkish conquest. “The vulgar speech,” says Philelphus,734 “has been depraved by the
people, and infected by the multitude of strangers and merchants, who every day flock to the city and mingle with the
731 In the first attempt, Meursius collected 3600 Græco-barbarous words, to
which, in a second edition, he subjoined 1800 more; yet what plenteous gleanings did he leave to Portius, Ducange, Fabrotti, the Bollandists, &c! (Fabric
Bibliot Græc tom x p 101, &c) Some Persic words may be found in Xenophon,
and some Latin ones in Plutarch; and such is the inevitable effect of war and
commerce; but the form and substance of the language were not affected by
this slight alloy.
732 The life of Francis Philelphus, a sophist, proud, restless, and rapacious, has
been diligently composed by Lancelot (Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions, tom x p 691–751) (Istoria della Letteratura Italiana, tom vii p 282–294,)
for the most part from his own letters His elaborate writings, and those of his
contemporaries, are forgotten; but their familiar epistles still describe the men
and the times.
733 He married, and had perhaps debauched, the daughter of John, and the
granddaughter of Manuel Chrysoloras She was young, beautiful, and wealthy;
and her noble family was allied to the Dorias of Genoa and the emperors of
Constantinople.
734 Græci quibus lingua depravata non sit ita loquuntur vulgo hâc etiam tempestate ut Aristophanes comicus, aut Euripides tragicus, ut oratores omnes, ut
historiographi, ut philosophi litterati autem homines et doctius et emendatius
Nam viri aulici veterem sermonis dignitatem atque elegantiam retinebant in
primisque ipsæ nobiles mulieres; quibus cum nullum esset omnino cum viris
peregrinis commercium, merus ille ac purus Græcorum sermo servabatur intactus, (Philelph Epist ad ann 1451, apud Hodium, p 188, 189) He observes in
another passage, uxor illa mea Theodora locutione erat admodum moderatâ et
suavi et maxime Atticâ.
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inhabitants. It is from the disciples of such a school that the
Latin language received the versions of Aristotle and Plato;
so obscure in sense, and in spirit so poor. But the Greeks who
have escaped the contagion, are those whom we follow; and
they alone are worthy of our imitation. In familiar discourse,
they still speak the tongue of Aristophanes and Euripides, of
the historians and philosophers of Athens; and the style of
their writings is still more elaborate and correct. The persons
who, by their birth and offices, are attached to the Byzantine
court, are those who maintain, with the least alloy, the ancient
standard of elegance and purity; and the native graces of language most conspicuously shine among the noble matrons,
who are excluded from all intercourse with foreigners. With
foreigners do I say? They live retired and sequestered from
the eyes of their fellow-citizens. Seldom are they seen in the
streets; and when they leave their houses, it is in the dusk of
evening, on visits to the churches and their nearest kindred.
On these occasions, they are on horseback, covered with a
veil, and encompassed by their parents, their husbands, or
their servants.”735
Among the Greeks a numerous and opulent clergy was
dedicated to the service of religion: their monks and bishops have ever been distinguished by the gravity and austerity of their manners; nor were they diverted, like the Latin
priests, by the pursuits and pleasures of a secular, and even
military, life. After a large deduction for the time and talent that were lost in the devotion, the laziness, and the discord, of the church and cloister, the more inquisitive and ambitious minds would explore the sacred and profane erudition of their native language. The ecclesiastics presided over
the education of youth; the schools of philosophy and eloquence were perpetuated till the fall of the empire; and it
may be affirmed, that more books and more knowledge were
735 Philelphus, absurdly enough, derives this Greek or Oriental jealousy from
the manners of ancient Rome.
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included within the walls of Constantinople, than could be
dispersed over the extensive countries of the West.736 But an
important distinction has been already noticed: the Greeks
were stationary or retrograde, while the Latins were advancing with a rapid and progressive motion. The nations were
excited by the spirit of independence and emulation; and
even the little world of the Italian states contained more people and industry than the decreasing circle of the Byzantine
empire. In Europe, the lower ranks of society were relieved
from the yoke of feudal servitude; and freedom is the first
step to curiosity and knowledge. The use, however rude and
corrupt, of the Latin tongue had been preserved by superstition; the universities, from Bologna to Oxford,737 were peopled with thousands of scholars; and their misguided ardor
might be directed to more liberal and manly studies. In the
resurrection of science, Italy was the first that cast away her
shroud; and the eloquent Petrarch, by his lessons and his example, may justly be applauded as the first harbinger of day.
A purer style of composition, a more generous and rational
strain of sentiment, flowed from the study and imitation of
the writers of ancient Rome; and the disciples of Cicero and
Virgil approached, with reverence and love, the sanctuary
of their Grecian masters. In the sack of Constantinople, the
French, and even the Venetians, had despised and destroyed
the works of Lysippus and Homer: the monuments of art
may be annihilated by a single blow; but the immortal mind
is renewed and multiplied by the copies of the pen; and such
copies it was the ambition of Petrarch and his friends to pos736 See the state of learning in the xiiith and xivth centuries, in the learned and
judicious Mosheim, (Instit Hist Ecclés p 434–440, 490–494).
737 At the end of the xvth century, there existed in Europe about fifty universities, and of these the foundation of ten or twelve is prior to the year 1300
They were crowded in proportion to their scarcity Bologna contained 10,000
students, chiefly of the civil law In the year 1357 the number at Oxford had decreased from 30,000 to 6000 scholars, (Henry’s History of Great Britain, vol iv p
478) Yet even this decrease is much superior to the present list of the members
of the university.
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sess and understand. The arms of the Turks undoubtedly
pressed the flight of the Muses; yet we may tremble at the
thought, that Greece might have been overwhelmed, with
her schools and libraries, before Europe had emerged from
the deluge of barbarism; that the seeds of science might have
been scattered by the winds, before the Italian soil was prepared for their cultivation.
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Part IV
most learned Italians of the fifteenth century have conT fessed
and applauded the restoration of Greek literature,
HE
after a long oblivion of many hundred years.738 Yet in that
country, and beyond the Alps, some names are quoted; some
profound scholars, who in the darker ages were honorably
distinguished by their knowledge of the Greek tongue; and
national vanity has been loud in the praise of such rare examples of erudition. Without scrutinizing the merit of individuals, truth must observe, that their science is without
a cause, and without an effect; that it was easy for them to
satisfy themselves and their more ignorant contemporaries;
and that the idiom, which they had so marvellously acquired
was transcribed in few manuscripts, and was not taught in
any university of the West. In a corner of Italy, it faintly existed as the popular, or at least as the ecclesiastical dialect.739
The first impression of the Doric and Ionic colonies has never
been completely erased: the Calabrian churches were long
attached to the throne of Constantinople: and the monks
of St. Basil pursued their studies in Mount Athos and the
schools of the East. Calabria was the native country of Barlaam, who has already appeared as a sectary and an ambassador; and Barlaam was the first who revived, beyond the
Alps, the memory, or at least the writings, of Homer.740 He is
738 Of those writers who professedly treat of the restoration of the Greek learning in Italy, the two principal are Hodius, Dr Humphrey Hody, (de Græcis Illustribus, Linguæ Græcæ Literarumque humaniorum Instauratoribus; Londini,
1742, in large octavo,) and Tiraboschi, (Istoria della Letteratura Italiana, tom v p
364–377, tom vii p 112–143) The Oxford professor is a laborious scholar, but the
librarian of Modena enjoys the superiority of a modern and national historian.
739 In Calabria quæ olim magna Græcia dicebatur, coloniis Græcis repleta,
remansit quædam linguæ veteris, cognitio, (Hodius, p 2) If it were eradicated
by the Romans, it was revived and perpetuated by the monks of St Basil, who
possessed seven convents at Rossano alone, (Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, tom i
p 520).
740 Ii Barbari (says Petrarch, the French and Germans) vix, non dicam libros
sed nomen Homeri audiverunt Perhaps, in that respect, the xiiith century was
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described, by Petrarch and Boccace,741 as a man of diminutive stature, though truly great in the measure of learning
and genius; of a piercing discernment, though of a slow and
painful elocution. For many ages (as they affirm) Greece had
not produced his equal in the knowledge of history, grammar, and philosophy; and his merit was celebrated in the attestations of the princes and doctors of Constantinople. One
of these attestations is still extant; and the emperor Cantacuzene, the protector of his adversaries, is forced to allow,
that Euclid, Aristotle, and Plato, were familiar to that profound and subtle logician.742 In the court of Avignon, he
formed an intimate connection with Petrarch,743 the first of
the Latin scholars; and the desire of mutual instruction was
the principle of their literary commerce. The Tuscan applied
himself with eager curiosity and assiduous diligence to the
study of the Greek language; and in a laborious struggle with
the dryness and difficulty of the first rudiments, he began to
reach the sense, and to feel the spirit, of poets and philosophers, whose minds were congenial to his own. But he was
soon deprived of the society and lessons of this useful assistant: Barlaam relinquished his fruitless embassy; and, on
his return to Greece, he rashly provoked the swarms of fanatic monks, by attempting to substitute the light of reason
to that of their navel. After a separation of three years, the
two friends again met in the court of Naples: but the generous pupil renounced the fairest occasion of improvement;
and by his recommendation Barlaam was finally settled in a
small bishopric of his native Calabria.744 The manifold avless happy than the age of Charlemagne.
741 See the character of Barlaam, in Boccace de Genealog Deorum, l xv c 6.
742 Cantacuzen l ii c 36.
743 For the connection of Petrarch and Barlaam, and the two interviews at
Avignon in 1339, and at Naples in 1342, see the excellent Mémoires sur la Vie
de Pétrarque, tom i p 406–410, tom ii p 74–77.
744 The bishopric to which Barlaam retired, was the old Locri, in the middle
ages Scta Cyriaca, and by corruption Hieracium, Gerace, (Dissert Chorographica Italiæ Medii Ævi, p 312) The dives opum of the Norman times soon lapsed
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ocations of Petrarch, love and friendship, his various correspondence and frequent journeys, the Roman laurel, and his
elaborate compositions in prose and verse, in Latin and Italian, diverted him from a foreign idiom; and as he advanced
in life, the attainment of the Greek language was the object of
his wishes rather than of his hopes. When he was about fifty
years of age, a Byzantine ambassador, his friend, and a master of both tongues, presented him with a copy of Homer; and
the answer of Petrarch is at one expressive of his eloquence,
gratitude, and regret. After celebrating the generosity of the
donor, and the value of a gift more precious in his estimation than gold or rubies, he thus proceeds: “Your present of
the genuine and original text of the divine poet, the fountain
of all inventions, is worthy of yourself and of me: you have
fulfilled your promise, and satisfied my desires. Yet your liberality is still imperfect: with Homer you should have given
me yourself; a guide, who could lead me into the fields of
light, and disclose to my wondering eyes the spacious miracles of the Iliad and Odyssey. But, alas! Homer is dumb, or
I am deaf; nor is it in my power to enjoy the beauty which I
possess. I have seated him by the side of Plato, the prince of
poets near the prince of philosophers; and I glory in the sight
of my illustrious guests. Of their immortal writings, whatever had been translated into the Latin idiom, I had already
acquired; but, if there be no profit, there is some pleasure,
in beholding these venerable Greeks in their proper and national habit. I am delighted with the aspect of Homer; and
as often as I embrace the silent volume, I exclaim with a sigh,
Illustrious bard! with what pleasure should I listen to thy
song, if my sense of hearing were not obstructed and lost by
the death of one friend, and in the much-lamented absence of
another. Nor do I yet despair; and the example of Cato suggests some comfort and hope, since it was in the last period
into poverty, since even the church was poor: yet the town still contains 3000
inhabitants, (Swinburne, p 340).
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of age that he attained the knowledge of the Greek letters.”745
The prize which eluded the efforts of Petrarch, was obtained by the fortune and industry of his friend Boccace,746
the father of the Tuscan prose. That popular writer, who derives his reputation from the Decameron, a hundred novels of
pleasantry and love, may aspire to the more serious praise of
restoring in Italy the study of the Greek language. In the year
one thousand three hundred and sixty, a disciple of Barlaam,
whose name was Leo, or Leontius Pilatus, was detained in
his way to Avignon by the advice and hospitality of Boccace,
who lodged the stranger in his house, prevailed on the republic of Florence to allow him an annual stipend, and devoted
his leisure to the first Greek professor, who taught that language in the Western countries of Europe. The appearance of
Leo might disgust the most eager disciple, he was clothed in
the mantle of a philosopher, or a mendicant; his countenance
was hideous; his face was overshadowed with black hair; his
beard long an uncombed; his deportment rustic; his temper
gloomy and inconstant; nor could he grace his discourse with
the ornaments, or even the perspicuity, of Latin elocution.
But his mind was stored with a treasure of Greek learning:
history and fable, philosophy and grammar, were alike at his
command; and he read the poems of Homer in the schools
of Florence. It was from his explanation that Boccace composed [* and transcribed a literal prose version of the Iliad
and Odyssey, which satisfied the thirst of his friend Petrarch,
745 I will transcribe a passage from this epistle of Petrarch, (Famil ix 2;)
Donasti Homerum non in alienum sermonem violento alveâ?? derivatum, sed
ex ipsis Græci eloquii scatebris, et qualis divino illi profluxit ingenio Sine tuâ
voce Homerus tuus apud me mutus, immo vero ego apud illum surdus sum
Gaudeo tamen vel adspectû solo, ac sæpe illum amplexus atque suspirans dico,
O magne vir, &c.
746 For the life and writings of Boccace, who was born in 1313, and died in
1375, Fabricius (Bibliot Latin Medii Ævi, tom i p 248, &c) and Tiraboschi (tom v
p 83, 439–451) may be consulted The editions, versions, imitations of his novels,
are innumerable Yet he was ashamed to communicate that trifling, and perhaps
scandalous, work to Petrarch, his respectable friend, in whose letters and memoirs he conspicuously appears.
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and which, perhaps, in the succeeding century, was clandestinely used by Laurentius Valla, the Latin interpreter. It was
from his narratives that the same Boccace collected the materials for his treatise on the genealogy of the heathen gods,
a work, in that age, of stupendous erudition, and which he
ostentatiously sprinkled with Greek characters and passages,
to excite the wonder and applause of his more ignorant readers.747 The first steps of learning are slow and laborious; no
more than ten votaries of Homer could be enumerated in all
Italy; and neither Rome, nor Venice, nor Naples, could add
a single name to this studious catalogue. But their numbers
would have multiplied, their progress would have been accelerated, if the inconstant Leo, at the end of three years, had
not relinquished an honorable and beneficial station. In his
passage, Petrarch entertained him at Padua a short time: he
enjoyed the scholar, but was justly offended with the gloomy
and unsocial temper of the man. Discontented with the world
and with himself, Leo depreciated his present enjoyments,
while absent persons and objects were dear to his imagination. In Italy he was a Thessalian, in Greece a native of Calabria: in the company of the Latins he disdained their language, religion, and manners: no sooner was he landed at
Constantinople, than he again sighed for the wealth of Venice
and the elegance of Florence. His Italian friends were deaf
to his importunity: he depended on their curiosity and indulgence, and embarked on a second voyage; but on his entrance into the Adriatic, the ship was assailed by a tempest,
and the unfortunate teacher, who like Ulysses had fastened
himself to the mast, was struck dead by a flash of lightning.
The humane Petrarch dropped a tear on his disaster; but
he was most anxious to learn whether some copy of Euripi747 Boccace indulges an honest vanity: Ostentationis causâ Græca carmina
adscripsi jure utor meo; meum est hoc decus, mea gloria scilicet inter Etruscos
Græcis uti carminibus Nonne ego fui qui Leontium Pilatum, &c, (de Genealogia
Deorum, l xv c 7, a work which, though now forgotten, has run through thirteen
or fourteen editions).
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des or Sophocles might not be saved from the hands of the
mariners.748
But the faint rudiments of Greek learning, which Petrarch
had encouraged and Boccace had planted, soon withered and
expired. The succeeding generation was content for a while
with the improvement of Latin eloquence; nor was it before
the end of the fourteenth century that a new and perpetual
flame was rekindled in Italy.749 Previous to his own journey
the emperor Manuel despatched his envoys and orators to
implore the compassion of the Western princes. Of these envoys, the most conspicuous, or the most learned, was Manuel
Chrysoloras,750 of noble birth, and whose Roman ancestors
are supposed to have migrated with the great Constantine.
After visiting the courts of France and England, where he obtained some contributions and more promises, the envoy was
invited to assume the office of a professor; and Florence had
again the honor of this second invitation. By his knowledge,
not only of the Greek, but of the Latin tongue, Chrysoloras
deserved the stipend, and surpassed the expectation, of the
republic. His school was frequented by a crowd of disciples
of every rank and age; and one of these, in a general history,
has described his motives and his success. “At that time,”
says Leonard Aretin,751 “I was a student of the civil law; but
748 Leontius, or Leo Pilatus, is sufficiently made known by Hody, (p 2–11,)
and the abbé de Sade, (Vie de Pétrarque, tom iii p 625–634, 670–673,) who has
very happily caught the lively and dramatic manner of his original.
749 Dr Hody (p 54) is angry with Leonard Aretin, Guarinus, Paulus Jovius,
&c, for affirming, that the Greek letters were restored in Italy post septingentos
annos; as if, says he, they had flourished till the end of the viith century These
writers most probably reckoned from the last period of the exarchate; and the
presence of the Greek magistrates and troops at Ravenna and Rome must have
preserved, in some degree, the use of their native tongue.
750 See the article of Emanuel, or Manuel Chrysoloras, in Hody (p 12–54) and
Tiraboschi, (tom vii p 113–118) The precise date of his arrival floats between the
years 1390 and 1400, and is only confined by the reign of Boniface IX.
751 The name of Aretinus has been assumed by five or six natives of Arezzo
in Tuscany, of whom the most famous and the most worthless lived in the
xvith century Leonardus Brunus Aretinus, the disciple of Chrysoloras, was a
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my soul was inflamed with the love of letters; and I bestowed
some application on the sciences of logic and rhetoric. On the
arrival of Manuel, I hesitated whether I should desert my legal studies, or relinquish this golden opportunity; and thus,
in the ardor of youth, I communed with my own mind–Wilt
thou be wanting to thyself and thy fortune? Wilt thou refuse
to be introduced to a familiar converse with Homer, Plato,
and Demosthenes; with those poets, philosophers, and orators, of whom such wonders are related, and who are celebrated by every age as the great masters of human science?
Of professors and scholars in civil law, a sufficient supply
will always be found in our universities; but a teacher, and
such a teacher, of the Greek language, if he once be suffered
to escape, may never afterwards be retrieved. Convinced by
these reasons, I gave myself to Chrysoloras; and so strong
was my passion, that the lessons which I had imbibed in the
day were the constant object of my nightly dreams.”752 At
the same time and place, the Latin classics were explained
by John of Ravenna, the domestic pupil of Petrarch;753 the
Italians, who illustrated their age and country, were formed
in this double school; and Florence became the fruitful seminary of Greek and Roman erudition.754 The presence of the
linguist, an orator, and an historian, the secretary of four successive popes, and
the chancellor of the republic of Florence, where he died AD 1444, at the age
of seventy-five, (Fabric Bibliot Medii Ævi, tom i p 190 &c Tiraboschi, tom vii p
33–38).
752 See the passage in Aretin Commentario Rerum suo Tempore in Italia gestarum, apud Hodium, p 28–30.
753 In this domestic discipline, Petrarch, who loved the youth, often complains
of the eager curiosity, restless temper, and proud feelings, which announce the
genius and glory of a riper age, (Mémoires sur Pétrarque, tom iii p 700–709).
754 Hinc Græcæ Latinæque scholæ exortæ sunt, Guarino Philelpho, Leonardo
Aretino, Caroloque, ac plerisque aliis tanquam ex equo Trojano prodeuntibus,
quorum emulatione multa ingenia deinceps ad laudem excitata sunt, (Platina
in Bonifacio IX) Another Italian writer adds the names of Paulus Petrus Vergerius, Omnibonus Vincentius, Poggius, Franciscus Barbarus, &c But I question
whether a rigid chronology would allow Chrysoloras all these eminent scholars, (Hodius, p 25–27, &c).
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emperor recalled Chrysoloras from the college to the court;
but he afterwards taught at Pavia and Rome with equal industry and applause. The remainder of his life, about fifteen years, was divided between Italy and Constantinople,
between embassies and lessons. In the noble office of enlightening a foreign nation, the grammarian was not unmindful of
a more sacred duty to his prince and country; and Emanuel
Chrysoloras died at Constance on a public mission from the
emperor to the council.
After his example, the restoration of the Greek letters in
Italy was prosecuted by a series of emigrants, who were destitute of fortune, and endowed with learning, or at least with
language. From the terror or oppression of the Turkish arms,
the natives of Thessalonica and Constantinople escaped to
a land of freedom, curiosity, and wealth. The synod introduced into Florence the lights of the Greek church, and the
oracles of the Platonic philosophy; and the fugitives who adhered to the union, had the double merit of renouncing their
country, not only for the Christian, but for the catholic cause.
A patriot, who sacrifices his party and conscience to the allurements of favor, may be possessed, however, of the private and social virtues: he no longer hears the reproachful
epithets of slave and apostate; and the consideration which
he acquires among his new associates will restore in his own
eyes the dignity of his character. The prudent conformity of
Bessarion was rewarded with the Roman purple: he fixed his
residence in Italy; and the Greek cardinal, the titular patriarch
of Constantinople, was respected as the chief and protector
of his nation:755 his abilities were exercised in the legations
of Bologna, Venice, Germany, and France; and his election to
the chair of St. Peter floated for a moment on the uncertain
755 See in Hody the article of Bessarion, (p 136–177) Theodore Gaza, George
of Trebizond, and the rest of the Greeks whom I have named or omitted, are
inserted in their proper chapters of his learned work See likewise Tiraboschi, in
the 1st and 2d parts of the vith tome.
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breath of a conclave.756 His ecclesiastical honors diffused a
splendor and preeminence over his literary merit and service: his palace was a school; as often as the cardinal visited the Vatican, he was attended by a learned train of both
nations;757 of men applauded by themselves and the public;
and whose writings, now overspread with dust, were popular and useful in their own times. I shall not attempt to enumerate the restorers of Grecian literature in the fifteenth century; and it may be sufficient to mention with gratitude the
names of Theodore Gaza, of George of Trebizond, of John Argyropulus, and Demetrius Chalcocondyles, who taught their
native language in the schools of Florence and Rome. Their
labors were not inferior to those of Bessarion, whose purple
they revered, and whose fortune was the secret object of their
envy. But the lives of these grammarians were humble and
obscure: they had declined the lucrative paths of the church;
their dress and manners secluded them from the commerce
of the world; and since they were confined to the merit, they
might be content with the rewards, of learning. From this
character, Janus Lascaris758 will deserve an exception. His
eloquence, politeness, and Imperial descent, recommended
him to the French monarch; and in the same cities he was
alternately employed to teach and to negotiate. Duty and interest prompted them to cultivate the study of the Latin lan756 The cardinals knocked at his door, but his conclavist refused to interrupt
the studies of Bessarion: “Nicholas,” said he, “thy respect has cost thee a hat,
and me the tiara” *.
757 Such as George of Trebizond, Theodore Gaza, Argyropulus, Andronicus of
Thessalonica, Philelphus, Poggius, Blondus, Nicholas Perrot, Valla, Campanus,
Platina, &c Viri (says Hody, with the pious zeal of a scholar) (nullo ævo perituri,
p 156).
758 He was born before the taking of Constantinople, but his honorable life
was stretched far into the xvith century, (AD 1535) Leo X and Francis I were
his noblest patrons, under whose auspices he founded the Greek colleges of
Rome and Paris, (Hody, p 247–275) He left posterity in France; but the counts
de Vintimille, and their numerous branches, derive the name of Lascaris from
a doubtful marriage in the xiiith century with the daughter of a Greek emperor
(Ducange, Fam Byzant p 224–230).
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guage; and the most successful attained the faculty of writing and speaking with fluency and elegance in a foreign idiom. But they ever retained the inveterate vanity of their
country: their praise, or at least their esteem, was reserved
for the national writers, to whom they owed their fame and
subsistence; and they sometimes betrayed their contempt in
licentious criticism or satire on Virgil’s poetry, and the oratory of Tully.759 The superiority of these masters arose from
the familiar use of a living language; and their first disciples
were incapable of discerning how far they had degenerated
from the knowledge, and even the practice of their ancestors. A vicious pronunciation,760 which they introduced, was
banished from the schools by the reason of the succeeding
age. Of the power of the Greek accents they were ignorant;
and those musical notes, which, from an Attic tongue, and
to an Attic ear, must have been the secret soul of harmony,
were to their eyes, as to our own, no more than minute and
unmeaning marks, in prose superfluous and troublesome in
verse. The art of grammar they truly possessed; the valuable fragments of Apollonius and Herodian were transfused
into their lessons; and their treatises of syntax and etymol759 Two of his epigrams against Virgil, and three against Tully, are preserved
and refuted by Franciscus Floridus, who can find no better names than Græculus ineptus et impudens, (Hody, p 274) In our own times, an English critic has
accused the Æneid of containing multa languida, nugatoria, spiritû et majestate
carminis heroici defecta; many such verses as he, the said Jeremiah Markland,
would have been ashamed of owning, (præfat ad Statii Sylvas, p 21, 22).
760 Emanuel Chrysoloras, and his colleagues, are accused of ignorance, envy,
or avarice, (Sylloge, &c, tom ii p 235) The modern Greeks pronounce the b as
a V consonant, and confound three vowels, (h i u,) and several diphthongs
Such was the vulgar pronunciation which the stern Gardiner maintained by
penal statutes in the university of Cambridge: but the monosyllable bh represented to an Attic ear the bleating of sheep, and a bellwether is better evidence
than a bishop or a chancellor The treatises of those scholars, particularly Erasmus, who asserted a more classical pronunciation, are collected in the Sylloge
of Havercamp, (2 vols in octavo, Lugd Bat 1736, 1740:) but it is difficult to paint
sounds by words: and in their reference to modern use, they can be understood only by their respective countrymen We may observe, that our peculiar
pronunciation of the O, th, is approved by Erasmus, (tom ii p 130).
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ogy, though devoid of philosophic spirit, are still useful to the
Greek student. In the shipwreck of the Byzantine libraries,
each fugitive seized a fragment of treasure, a copy of some
author, who without his industry might have perished: the
transcripts were multiplied by an assiduous, and sometimes
an elegant pen; and the text was corrected and explained by
their own comments, or those of the elder scholiasts. The
sense, though not the spirit, of the Greek classics, was interpreted to the Latin world: the beauties of style evaporate in
a version; but the judgment of Theodore Gaza selected the
more solid works of Aristotle and Theophrastus, and their
natural histories of animals and plants opened a rich fund of
genuine and experimental science.761
Yet the fleeting shadows of metaphysics were pursued with
more curiosity and ardor. After a long oblivion, Plato was
revived in Italy by a venerable Greek,762 who taught in the
house of Cosmo of Medicis. While the synod of Florence was
involved in theological debate, some beneficial consequences
might flow from the study of his elegant philosophy: his
style is the purest standard of the Attic dialect, and his sublime thoughts are sometimes adapted to familiar conversation, and sometimes adorned with the richest colors of poetry
and eloquence. The dialogues of Plato are a dramatic picture
of the life and death of a sage; and, as often as he descends
from the clouds, his moral system inculcates the love of truth,
of our country, and of mankind. The precept and example of
Socrates recommended a modest doubt and liberal inquiry;
and if the Platonists, with blind devotion, adored the visions
and errors of their divine master, their enthusiasm might correct the dry, dogmatic method of the Peripatetic school. So
761 Roscoe (Life of Lorenzo de Medici, vol. i. p. 75) considers that Hody has
refuted this “idle tale.” –M.
762 George Gemistus Pletho, a various and voluminous writer, the master of
Bessarion, and all the Platonists of the times He visited Italy in his old age, and
soon returned to end his days in Peloponnesus See the curious Diatribe of Leo
Allatius de Georgiis, in Fabricius (Bibliot Græc tom x p 739–756).
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equal, yet so opposite, are the merits of Plato and Aristotle,
that they may be balanced in endless controversy; but some
spark of freedom may be produced by the collision of adverse
servitude. The modern Greeks were divided between the two
sects: with more fury than skill they fought under the banner
of their leaders; and the field of battle was removed in their
flight from Constantinople to Rome. But this philosophical
debate soon degenerated into an angry and personal quarrel of grammarians; and Bessarion, though an advocate for
Plato, protected the national honor, by interposing the advice
and authority of a mediator. In the gardens of the Medici, the
academical doctrine was enjoyed by the polite and learned:
but their philosophic society was quickly dissolved; and if
the writings of the Attic sage were perused in the closet, the
more powerful Stagyrite continued to reign, the oracle of the
church and school.763
I have fairly represented the literary merits of the Greeks;
yet it must be confessed, that they were seconded and surpassed by the ardor of the Latins. Italy was divided into
many independent states; and at that time it was the ambition of princes and republics to vie with each other in the encouragement and reward of literature. The fame of Nicholas
the Fifth764 has not been adequate to his merits. From a plebeian origin he raised himself by his virtue and learning: the
character of the man prevailed over the interest of the pope;
and he sharpened those weapons which were soon pointed
against the Roman church.765 He had been the friend of
the most eminent scholars of the age: he became their pa763 The state of the Platonic philosophy in Italy is illustrated by Boivin, (Mém
de l’Acad des Inscriptions, tom ii p 715–729,) and Tiraboschi, (tom vi P i p 259–
288).
764 See the Life of Nicholas V by two contemporary authors, Janottus Manettus, (tom iii P ii p 905–962,) and Vespasian of Florence, (tom xxv p 267–290,) in
the collection of Muratori; and consult Tiraboschi, (tom vi P i p 46–52, 109,) and
Hody in the articles of Theodore Gaza, George of Trebizond, &c.
765 Lord Bolingbroke observes, with truth and spirit, that the popes in this
instance, were worse politicians than the muftis, and that the charm which had
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tron; and such was the humility of his manners, that the
change was scarcely discernible either to them or to himself.
If he pressed the acceptance of a liberal gift, it was not as
the measure of desert, but as the proof of benevolence; and
when modest merit declined his bounty, “Accept it,” would
he say, with a consciousness of his own worth: “ye will not
always have a Nicholas among you.” The influence of the
holy see pervaded Christendom; and he exerted that influence in the search, not of benefices, but of books. From the
ruins of the Byzantine libraries, from the darkest monasteries
of Germany and Britain, he collected the dusty manuscripts
of the writers of antiquity; and wherever the original could
not be removed, a faithful copy was transcribed and transmitted for his use. The Vatican, the old repository for bulls
and legends, for superstition and forgery, was daily replenished with more precious furniture; and such was the industry of Nicholas, that in a reign of eight years he formed a library of five thousand volumes. To his munificence the Latin
world was indebted for the versions of Xenophon, Diodorus,
Polybius, Thucydides, Herodotus, and Appian; of Strabo’s
Geography, of the Iliad, of the most valuable works of Plato
and Aristotle, of Ptolemy and Theophrastus, and of the fathers of the Greek church. The example of the Roman pontiff
was preceded or imitated by a Florentine merchant, who governed the republic without arms and without a title. Cosmo
of Medicis766 was the father of a line of princes, whose name
and age are almost synonymous with the restoration of learning: his credit was ennobled into fame; his riches were dedicated to the service of mankind; he corresponded at once
with Cairo and London: and a cargo of Indian spices and
bound mankind for so many ages was broken by the magicians themselves,
(Letters on the Study of History, l vi p 165, 166, octavo edition, 1779).
766 See the literary history of Cosmo and Lorenzo of Medicis, in Tiraboschi,
(tom vi P i l i c 2,) who bestows a due measure of praise on Alphonso of Arragon, king of Naples, the dukes of Milan, Ferrara Urbino, &c The republic of
Venice has deserved the least from the gratitude of scholars.
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Greek books was often imported in the same vessel. The genius and education of his grandson Lorenzo rendered him
not only a patron, but a judge and candidate, in the literary
race. In his palace, distress was entitled to relief, and merit to
reward: his leisure hours were delightfully spent in the Platonic academy; he encouraged the emulation of Demetrius
Chalcocondyles and Angelo Politian; and his active missionary Janus Lascaris returned from the East with a treasure of
two hundred manuscripts, fourscore of which were as yet unknown in the libraries of Europe.767 The rest of Italy was
animated by a similar spirit, and the progress of the nation
repaid the liberality of their princes. The Latins held the exclusive property of their own literature; and these disciples
of Greece were soon capable of transmitting and improving
the lessons which they had imbibed. After a short succession
of foreign teachers, the tide of emigration subsided; but the
language of Constantinople was spread beyond the Alps and
the natives of France, Germany, and England,768 imparted to
their country the sacred fire which they had kindled in the
schools of Florence and Rome.769 In the productions of the
mind, as in those of the soil, the gifts of nature are excelled by
industry and skill: the Greek authors, forgotten on the banks
767 Tiraboschi, (tom vi P i p 104,) from the preface of Janus Lascaris to the
Greek Anthology, printed at Florence, 1494 Latebant (says Aldus in his preface
to the Greek orators, apud Hodium, p 249) in Atho Thraciæ monte Eas Lascaris
in Italiam reportavit Miserat enim ipsum Laurentius ille Medices in Græciam
ad inquirendos simul, et quantovis emendos pretio bonos libros It is remarkable
enough, that the research was facilitated by Sultan Bajazet II.
768 The Greek language was introduced into the university of Oxford in the
last years of the xvth century, by Grocyn, Linacer, and Latimer, who had all
studied at Florence under Demetrius Chalcocondyles See Dr Knight’s curious
Life of Erasmus Although a stout academical patriot, he is forced to acknowledge that Erasmus learned Greek at Oxford, and taught it at Cambridge.
769 The jealous Italians were desirous of keeping a monopoly of Greek learning When Aldus was about to publish the Greek scholiasts on Sophocles
and Euripides, Cave, (said they,) cave hoc facias, ne Barbari istis adjuti domi
maneant, et pauciores in Italiam ventitent, (Dr Knight, in his Life of Erasmus, p
365, from Beatus Rhemanus).
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of the Ilissus, have been illustrated on those of the Elbe and
the Thames: and Bessarion or Gaza might have envied the superior science of the Barbarians; the accuracy of Budæus, the
taste of Erasmus, the copiousness of Stephens, the erudition
of Scaliger, the discernment of Reiske, or of Bentley. On the
side of the Latins, the discovery of printing was a casual advantage: but this useful art has been applied by Aldus, and
his innumerable successors, to perpetuate and multiply the
works of antiquity.770 A single manuscript imported from
Greece is revived in ten thousand copies; and each copy is
fairer than the original. In this form, Homer and Plato would
peruse with more satisfaction their own writings; and their
scholiasts must resign the prize to the labors of our Western
editors.
Before the revival of classic literature, the Barbarians in Europe were immersed in ignorance; and their vulgar tongues
were marked with the rudeness and poverty of their manners. The students of the more perfect idioms of Rome and
Greece were introduced to a new world of light and science;
to the society of the free and polished nations of antiquity;
and to a familiar converse with those immortal men who
spoke the sublime language of eloquence and reason. Such
an intercourse must tend to refine the taste, and to elevate the
genius, of the moderns; and yet, from the first experiments, it
might appear that the study of the ancients had given fetters,
rather than wings, to the human mind. However laudable,
the spirit of imitation is of a servile cast; and the first disciples of the Greeks and Romans were a colony of strangers in
770 The press of Aldus Manutius, a Roman, was established at Venice about
the year 1494: he printed above sixty considerable works of Greek literature,
almost all for the first time; several containing different treatises and authors,
and of several authors, two, three, or four editions, (Fabric Bibliot Græc tom xiii
p 605, &c) Yet his glory must not tempt us to forget, that the first Greek book,
the Grammar of Constantine Lascaris, was printed at Milan in 1476; and that
the Florence Homer of 1488 displays all the luxury of the typographical art See
the Annales Typographical of Mattaire, and the Bibliographie Instructive of De
Bure, a knowing bookseller of Paris.
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the midst of their age and country. The minute and laborious diligence which explored the antiquities of remote times
might have improved or adorned the present state of society, the critic and metaphysician were the slaves of Aristotle;
the poets, historians, and orators, were proud to repeat the
thoughts and words of the Augustan age: the works of nature were observed with the eyes of Pliny and Theophrastus;
and some Pagan votaries professed a secret devotion to the
gods of Homer and Plato.771 The Italians were oppressed by
the strength and number of their ancient auxiliaries: the century after the deaths of Petrarch and Boccace was filled with a
crowd of Latin imitators, who decently repose on our shelves;
but in that æra of learning it will not be easy to discern a
real discovery of science, a work of invention or eloquence,
in the popular language of the country.772 But as soon as
it had been deeply saturated with the celestial dew, the soil
was quickened into vegetation and life; the modern idioms
were refined; the classics of Athens and Rome inspired a pure
taste and a generous emulation; and in Italy, as afterwards in
France and England, the pleasing reign of poetry and fiction
was succeeded by the light of speculative and experimental
philosophy. Genius may anticipate the season of maturity;
but in the education of a people, as in that of an individual,
771 I will select three singular examples of this classic enthusiasm I At the
synod of Florence, Gemistus Pletho said, in familiar conversation to George
of Trebizond, that in a short time mankind would unanimously renounce the
Gospel and the Koran, for a religion similar to that of the Gentiles, (Leo Allatius,
apud Fabricium, tom x p 751) 2 Paul II persecuted the Roman academy, which
had been founded by Pomponius Lætus; and the principal members were accused of heresy, impiety, and paganism, (Tiraboschi, tom vi P i p 81, 82) 3 In
the next century, some scholars and poets in France celebrated the success of
Jodelle’s tragedy of Cleopatra, by a festival of Bacchus, and, as it is said, by the
sacrifice of a goat, (Bayle, Dictionnaire, Jodelle Fontenelle, tom iii p 56–61) Yet
the spirit of bigotry might often discern a serious impiety in the sportive play
of fancy and learning.
772 The survivor Boccace died in the year 1375; and we cannot place before
1480 the composition of the Morgante Maggiore of Pulci and the Orlando Innamorato of Boyardo, (Tiraboschi, tom vi P ii p 174–177).
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memory must be exercised, before the powers of reason and
fancy can be expanded: nor may the artist hope to equal or
surpass, till he has learned to imitate, the works of his predecessors.
400
Chapter LXVII
S CHISM O F T HE G REEKS A ND L ATINS
Part I
Schism Of The Greeks And Latins.–
Reign And Character Of Amurath The Second.–
Crusade Of Ladislaus, King Of Hungary.–
His Defeat And Death.–
John Huniades.–
Scanderbeg.–
Constantine Palæologus, Last Emperor Of The
East.
respective merits of Rome and Constantinople are
T compared
and celebrated by an eloquent Greek, the faHE
ther of the Italian schools.773 The view of the ancient capital,
the seat of his ancestors, surpassed the most sanguine expectations of Emanuel Chrysoloras; and he no longer blamed
the exclamation of an old sophist, that Rome was the habitation, not of men, but of gods. Those gods, and those men,
had long since vanished; but to the eye of liberal enthusiasm,
the majesty of ruin restored the image of her ancient prosperity. The monuments of the consuls and Cæsars, of the martyrs and apostles, engaged on all sides the curiosity of the
philosopher and the Christian; and he confessed that in every age the arms and the religion of Rome were destined to
reign over the earth. While Chrysoloras admired the venerable beauties of the mother, he was not forgetful of his native
country, her fairest daughter, her Imperial colony; and the
Byzantine patriot expatiates with zeal and truth on the eternal advantages of nature, and the more transitory glories of
773 The epistle of Emanuel Chrysoloras to the emperor John Palæologus will
not offend the eye or ear of a classical student, (ad calcem Codini de Antiquitatibus C P p 107–126) The superscription suggests a chronological remark, that
John Palæologus II was associated in the empire before the year 1414, the date
of Chrysoloras’s death A still earlier date, at least 1408, is deduced from the age
of his youngest sons, Demetrius and Thomas, who were both Porphyrogeniti
(Ducange, Fam Byzant p 244, 247).
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PART I
art and dominion, which adorned, or had adorned, the city
of Constantine. Yet the perfection of the copy still redounds
(as he modestly observes) to the honor of the original, and
parents are delighted to be renewed, and even excelled, by
the superior merit of their children. “Constantinople,” says
the orator, “is situate on a commanding point, between Europe and Asia, between the Archipelago and the Euxine. By
her interposition, the two seas, and the two continents, are
united for the common benefit of nations; and the gates of
commerce may be shut or opened at her command. The harbor, encompassed on all sides by the sea, and the continent,
is the most secure and capacious in the world. The walls
and gates of Constantinople may be compared with those of
Babylon: the towers many; each tower is a solid and lofty
structure; and the second wall, the outer fortification, would
be sufficient for the defence and dignity of an ordinary capital. A broad and rapid stream may be introduced into the
ditches and the artificial island may be encompassed, like
Athens,774 by land or water.” Two strong and natural causes
are alleged for the perfection of the model of new Rome. The
royal founder reigned over the most illustrious nations of the
globe; and in the accomplishment of his designs, the power
of the Romans was combined with the art and science of the
Greeks. Other cities have been reared to maturity by accident
and time: their beauties are mingled with disorder and deformity; and the inhabitants, unwilling to remove from their natal spot, are incapable of correcting the errors of their ancestors, and the original vices of situation or climate. But the free
idea of Constantinople was formed and executed by a single
mind; and the primitive model was improved by the obedient zeal of the subjects and successors of the first monarch.
774 Somebody observed that the city of Athens might be circumnavigated, (tiV
eipen tin polin tvn Aqhnaiwn dunasqai kai paraplein kai periplein) But what
may be true in a rhetorical sense of Constantinople, cannot be applied to the
situation of Athens, five miles from the sea, and not intersected or surrounded
by any navigable streams.
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The adjacent isles were stored with an inexhaustible supply
of marble; but the various materials were transported from
the most remote shores of Europe and Asia; and the public and private buildings, the palaces, churches, aqueducts,
cisterns, porticos, columns, baths, and hippodromes, were
adapted to the greatness of the capital of the East. The superfluity of wealth was spread along the shores of Europe
and Asia; and the Byzantine territory, as far as the Euxine,
the Hellespont, and the long wall, might be considered as a
populous suburb and a perpetual garden. In this flattering
picture, the past and the present, the times of prosperity and
decay, are art fully confounded; but a sigh and a confession
escape, from the orator, that his wretched country was the
shadow and sepulchre of its former self. The works of ancient
sculpture had been defaced by Christian zeal or Barbaric violence; the fairest structures were demolished; and the marbles of Paros or Numidia were burnt for lime, or applied to
the meanest uses. Of many a statue, the place was marked
by an empty pedestal; of many a column, the size was determined by a broken capital; the tombs of the emperors were
scattered on the ground; the stroke of time was accelerated by
storms and earthquakes; and the vacant space was adorned,
by vulgar tradition, with fabulous monuments of gold and
silver. From these wonders, which lived only in memory or
belief, he distinguishes, however, the porphyry pillar, the column and colossus of Justinian,775 and the church, more especially the dome, of St. Sophia; the best conclusion, since it
could not be described according to its merits, and after it no
other object could deserve to be mentioned. But he forgets
that, a century before, the trembling fabrics of the colossus
and the church had been saved and supported by the timely
775 Nicephorus Gregoras has described the Colossus of Justinian, (l vii 12:) but
his measures are false and inconsistent The editor Boivin consulted his friend
Girardon; and the sculptor gave him the true proportions of an equestrian
statue That of Justinian was still visible to Peter Gyllius, not on the column,
but in the outward court of the seraglio; and he was at Constantinople when it
was melted down, and cast into a brass cannon, (de Topograph C P l ii c 17).
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care of Andronicus the Elder. Thirty years after the emperor
had fortified St. Sophia with two new buttresses or pyramids, the eastern hemisphere suddenly gave way: and the
images, the altars, and the sanctuary, were crushed by the
falling ruin. The mischief indeed was speedily repaired; the
rubbish was cleared by the incessant labor of every rank and
age; and the poor remains of riches and industry were consecrated by the Greeks to the most stately and venerable temple
of the East.776
The last hope of the falling city and empire was placed in
the harmony of the mother and daughter, in the maternal
tenderness of Rome, and the filial obedience of Constantinople. In the synod of Florence, the Greeks and Latins had
embraced, and subscribed, and promised; but these signs of
friendship were perfidious or fruitless;777 and the baseless
fabric of the union vanished like a dream.778 The emperor
and his prelates returned home in the Venetian galleys; but
as they touched at the Morea and the Isles of Corfu and Lesbos, the subjects of the Latins complained that the pretended
union would be an instrument of oppression. No sooner did
they land on the Byzantine shore, than they were saluted,
or rather assailed, with a general murmur of zeal and discontent. During their absence, above two years, the capital
had been deprived of its civil and ecclesiastical rulers; fanati776 See the decay and repairs of St Sophia, in Nicephorus Gregoras (l vii 12, l
xv 2) The building was propped by Andronicus in 1317, the eastern hemisphere
fell in 1345 The Greeks, in their pompous rhetoric, exalt the beauty and holiness
of the church, an earthly heaven the abode of angels, and of God himself, &c.
777 The genuine and original narrative of Syropulus (p 312–351) opens the
schism from the first office of the Greeks at Venice to the general opposition at
Constantinople, of the clergy and people.
778 On the schism of Constantinople, see Phranza, (l ii c 17,) Laonicus Chalcondyles, (l vi p 155, 156,) and Ducas, (c 31;) the last of whom writes with
truth and freedom Among the moderns we may distinguish the continuator of
Fleury, (tom xxii p 338, &c, 401, 420, &c,) and Spondanus, (AD 1440–50) The
sense of the latter is drowned in prejudice and passion, as soon as Rome and
religion are concerned.
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PART I
cism fermented in anarchy; the most furious monks reigned
over the conscience of women and bigots; and the hatred
of the Latin name was the first principle of nature and religion. Before his departure for Italy, the emperor had flattered
the city with the assurance of a prompt relief and a powerful succor; and the clergy, confident in their orthodoxy and
science, had promised themselves and their flocks an easy
victory over the blind shepherds of the West. The double disappointment exasperated the Greeks; the conscience of the
subscribing prelates was awakened; the hour of temptation
was past; and they had more to dread from the public resentment, than they could hope from the favor of the emperor or the pope. Instead of justifying their conduct, they
deplored their weakness, professed their contrition, and cast
themselves on the mercy of God and of their brethren. To
the reproachful question, what had been the event or the use
of their Italian synod? they answered with sighs and tears,
“Alas! we have made a new faith; we have exchanged piety
for impiety; we have betrayed the immaculate sacrifice; and
we are become Azymites.” (The Azymites were those who celebrated the communion with unleavened bread; and I must
retract or qualify the praise which I have bestowed on the
growing philosophy of the times.) “Alas! we have been seduced by distress, by fraud, and by the hopes and fears of a
transitory life. The hand that has signed the union should be
cut off; and the tongue that has pronounced the Latin creed
deserves to be torn from the root.” The best proof of their
repentance was an increase of zeal for the most trivial rites
and the most incomprehensible doctrines; and an absolute
separation from all, without excepting their prince, who preserved some regard for honor and consistency. After the decease of the patriarch Joseph, the archbishops of Heraclea and
Trebizond had courage to refuse the vacant office; and Cardinal Bessarion preferred the warm and comfortable shelter of
the Vatican. The choice of the emperor and his clergy was
confined to Metrophanes of Cyzicus: he was consecrated in
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St. Sophia, but the temple was vacant. The cross-bearers abdicated their service; the infection spread from the city to the
villages; and Metrophanes discharged, without effect, some
ecclesiastical thunders against a nation of schismatics. The
eyes of the Greeks were directed to Mark of Ephesus, the
champion of his country; and the sufferings of the holy confessor were repaid with a tribute of admiration and applause.
His example and writings propagated the flame of religious
discord; age and infirmity soon removed him from the world;
but the gospel of Mark was not a law of forgiveness; and he
requested with his dying breath, that none of the adherents
of Rome might attend his obsequies or pray for his soul.
The schism was not confined to the narrow limits of the
Byzantine empire. Secure under the Mamaluke sceptre, the
three patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, assembled a numerous synod; disowned their representatives
at Ferrara and Florence; condemned the creed and council
of the Latins; and threatened the emperor of Constantinople
with the censures of the Eastern church. Of the sectaries of
the Greek communion, the Russians were the most powerful, ignorant, and superstitious. Their primate, the cardinal
Isidore, hastened from Florence to Moscow,779 to reduce the
independent nation under the Roman yoke. But the Russian
bishops had been educated at Mount Athos; and the prince
and people embraced the theology of their priests. They
were scandalized by the title, the pomp, the Latin cross of
the legate, the friend of those impious men who shaved their
beards, and performed the divine office with gloves on their
hands and rings on their fingers: Isidore was condemned by a
synod; his person was imprisoned in a monastery; and it was
779 Isidore was metropolitan of Kiow, but the Greeks subject to Poland have
removed that see from the ruins of Kiow to Lemberg, or Leopold, (Herbestein,
in Ramusio, tom ii p 127) On the other hand, the Russians transferred their
spiritual obedience to the archbishop, who became, in 1588, the patriarch, of
Moscow, (Levesque Hist de Russie, tom iii p 188, 190, from a Greek MS at Turin,
Iter et labores Archiepiscopi Arsenii).
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with extreme difficulty that the cardinal could escape from
the hands of a fierce and fanatic people.780 The Russians refused a passage to the missionaries of Rome who aspired to
convert the Pagans beyond the Tanais;781 and their refusal
was justified by the maxim, that the guilt of idolatry is less
damnable than that of schism. The errors of the Bohemians
were excused by their abhorrence for the pope; and a deputation of the Greek clergy solicited the friendship of those
sanguinary enthusiasts.782 While Eugenius triumphed in the
union and orthodoxy of the Greeks, his party was contracted
to the walls, or rather to the palace of Constantinople. The
zeal of Palæologus had been excited by interest; it was soon
cooled by opposition: an attempt to violate the national belief
might endanger his life and crown; not could the pious rebels
be destitute of foreign and domestic aid. The sword of his
brother Demetrius, who in Italy had maintained a prudent
and popular silence, was half unsheathed in the cause of religion; and Amurath, the Turkish sultan, was displeased and
alarmed by the seeming friendship of the Greeks and Latins.
“Sultan Murad, or Amurath, lived forty-nine, and reigned
thirty years, six months, and eight days. He was a just and
valiant prince, of a great soul, patient of labors, learned, mer780 The curious narrative of Levesque (Hist de Russie, tom ii p 242–247) is
extracted from the patriarchal archives The scenes of Ferrara and Florence are
described by ignorance and passion; but the Russians are credible in the account of their own prejudices.
781 The Shamanism, the ancient religion of the Samanæans and Gymnosophists, has been driven by the more popular Bramins from India into the
northern deserts: the naked philosophers were compelled to wrap themselves
in fur; but they insensibly sunk into wizards and physicians The Mordvans and
Tcheremisses in the European Russia adhere to this religion, which is formed
on the earthly model of one king or God, his ministers or angels, and the rebellious spirits who oppose his government As these tribes of the Volga have
no images, they might more justly retort on the Latin missionaries the name of
idolaters, (Levesque, Hist des Peuples soumis à la Domination des Russes, tom
i p 194–237, 423–460).
782 Spondanus, Annal Eccles tom ii AD 1451, No 13 The epistle of the Greeks
with a Latin version, is extant in the college library at Prague.
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ciful, religious, charitable; a lover and encourager of the studious, and of all who excelled in any art or science; a good
emperor and a great general. No man obtained more or
greater victories than Amurath; Belgrade alone withstood his
attacks.783 Under his reign, the soldier was ever victorious,
the citizen rich and secure. If he subdued any country, his
first care was to build mosques and caravansaras, hospitals,
and colleges. Every year he gave a thousand pieces of gold to
the sons of the Prophet; and sent two thousand five hundred
to the religious persons of Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem.”784
This portrait is transcribed from the historian of the Othman
empire: but the applause of a servile and superstitious people has been lavished on the worst of tyrants; and the virtues
of a sultan are often the vices most useful to himself, or most
agreeable to his subjects. A nation ignorant of the equal benefits of liberty and law, must be awed by the flashes of arbitrary power: the cruelty of a despot will assume the character of justice; his profusion, of liberality; his obstinacy, of
firmness. If the most reasonable excuse be rejected, few acts
of obedience will be found impossible; and guilt must tremble, where innocence cannot always be secure. The tranquillity of the people, and the discipline of the troops, were best
maintained by perpetual action in the field; war was the trade
of the Janizaries; and those who survived the peril, and divided the spoil, applauded the generous ambition of their
sovereign. To propagate the true religion, was the duty of
a faithful Mussulman: the unbelievers were his enemies, and
those of the Prophet; and, in the hands of the Turks, the cimeter was the only instrument of conversion. Under these circumstances, however, the justice and moderation of Amurath are attested by his conduct, and acknowledged by the
Christians themselves; who consider a prosperous reign and
783 See
the siege and massacre at Thessalonica Von Hammer vol i p 433–M.
Cantemir, History of the Othman Empire, p 94 Murad, or Morad, may
be more correct: but I have preferred the popular name to that obscure diligence
which is rarely successful in translating an Oriental, into the Roman, alphabet.
784 See
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a peaceful death as the reward of his singular merits. In the
vigor of his age and military power, he seldom engaged in
war till he was justified by a previous and adequate provocation: the victorious sultan was disarmed by submission; and
in the observance of treaties, his word was inviolate and sacred.785 The Hungarians were commonly the aggressors; he
was provoked by the revolt of Scanderbeg; and the perfidious
Caramanian was twice vanquished, and twice pardoned, by
the Ottoman monarch. Before he invaded the Morea, Thebes
had been surprised by the despot: in the conquest of Thessalonica, the grandson of Bajazet might dispute the recent
purchase of the Venetians; and after the first siege of Constantinople, the sultan was never tempted, by the distress,
the absence, or the injuries of Palæologus, to extinguish the
dying light of the Byzantine empire.
But the most striking feature in the life and character of
Amurath is the double abdication of the Turkish throne; and,
were not his motives debased by an alloy of superstition, we
must praise the royal philosopher,786 who at the age of forty
could discern the vanity of human greatness. Resigning the
sceptre to his son, he retired to the pleasant residence of Magnesia; but he retired to the society of saints and hermits. It
was not till the fourth century of the Hegira, that the religion
of Mahomet had been corrupted by an institution so adverse
to his genius; but in the age of the crusades, the various orders of Dervises were multiplied by the example of the Christian, and even the Latin, monks.787 The lord of nations sub785 See Chalcondyles, (l vii p 186, 198,) Ducas, (c 33,) and Marinus Barletius,
(in Vit Scanderbeg, p 145, 146) In his good faith towards the garrison of Sfetigrade, he was a lesson and example to his son Mahomet.
786 Voltaire (Essai sur l’Histoire Générale, c 89, p 283, 284) admires le Philosophe
Turc: would he have bestowed the same praise on a Christian prince for retiring
to a monastery? In his way, Voltaire was a bigot, an intolerant bigot.
787 See the articles Dervische, Fakir, Nasser, Rohbaniat, in D’Herbelot’s Bibliothèque Orientale Yet the subject is superficially treated from the Persian and
Arabian writers It is among the Turks that these orders have principally flourished.
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mitted to fast, and pray, and turn round788 in endless rotation with the fanatics, who mistook the giddiness of the head
for the illumination of the spirit.789 But he was soon awakened from his dreams of enthusiasm by the Hungarian invasion; and his obedient son was the foremost to urge the public danger and the wishes of the people. Under the banner
of their veteran leader, the Janizaries fought and conquered
but he withdrew from the field of Varna, again to pray, to
fast, and to turn round with his Magnesian brethren. These
pious occupations were again interrupted by the danger of
the state. A victorious army disdained the inexperience of
their youthful ruler: the city of Adrianople was abandoned
to rapine and slaughter; and the unanimous divan implored
his presence to appease the tumult, and prevent the rebellion, of the Janizaries. At the well-known voice of their master, they trembled and obeyed; and the reluctant sultan was
compelled to support his splendid servitude, till at the end
of four years, he was relieved by the angel of death. Age or
disease, misfortune or caprice, have tempted several princes
to descend from the throne; and they have had leisure to repent of their irretrievable step. But Amurath alone, in the full
liberty of choice, after the trial of empire and solitude, has
repeated his preference of a private life.
After the departure of his Greek brethren, Eugenius had
not been unmindful of their temporal interest; and his tender regard for the Byzantine empire was animated by a just
apprehension of the Turks, who approached, and might soon
788 Gibbon has fallen into a remarkable error The unmonastic retreat of Amurath was that of an epicurean rather than of a dervis; more like that of Sardanapalus than of Charles the Fifth Profane, not divine, love was its chief occupation: the only dance, that described by Horace as belonging to the country,
motus doceri gaudet Ionicos. See Von Hammer note, p 652 –M.
789 Ricaut (in the Present State of the Ottoman Empire, p 242–268) affords
much information, which he drew from his personal conversation with the
heads of the dervises, most of whom ascribed their origin to the time of Orchan
He does not mention the Zichid of Chalcondyles, (l vii p 286,) among whom
Amurath retired: the Seids of that author are the descendants of Mahomet.
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PART I
invade, the borders of Italy. But the spirit of the crusades had
expired; and the coldness of the Franks was not less unreasonable than their headlong passion. In the eleventh century,
a fanatic monk could precipitate Europe on Asia for the recovery of the holy sepulchre; but in the fifteenth, the most
pressing motives of religion and policy were insufficient to
unite the Latins in the defence of Christendom. Germany
was an inexhaustible storehouse of men and arms:790 but
that complex and languid body required the impulse of a
vigorous hand; and Frederic the Third was alike impotent in
his personal character and his Imperial dignity. A long war
had impaired the strength, without satiating the animosity, of
France and England:791 but Philip duke of Burgundy was a
vain and magnificent prince; and he enjoyed, without danger
or expense, the adventurous piety of his subjects, who sailed,
in a gallant fleet, from the coast of Flanders to the Hellespont.
The maritime republics of Venice and Genoa were less remote from the scene of action; and their hostile fleets were
associated under the standard of St. Peter. The kingdoms
of Hungary and Poland, which covered as it were the interior pale of the Latin church, were the most nearly concerned
to oppose the progress of the Turks. Arms were the patrimony of the Scythians and Sarmatians; and these nations
might appear equal to the contest, could they point, against
the common foe, those swords that were so wantonly drawn
in bloody and domestic quarrels. But the same spirit was
790 In the year 1431, Germany raised 40,000 horse, men-at-arms, against the
Hussites of Bohemia, (Lenfant, Hist du Concile de Basle, tom i p 318) At the
siege of Nuys, on the Rhine, in 1474, the princes, prelates, and cities, sent their
respective quotas; and the bishop of Munster (qui n’est pas des plus grands)
furnished 1400 horse, 6000 foot, all in green, with 1200 wagons The united
armies of the king of England and the duke of Burgundy scarcely equalled
one third of this German host, (Mémoires de Philippe de Comines, l iv c 2)
At present, six or seven hundred thousand men are maintained in constant pay
and admirable discipline by the powers of Germany.
791 It was not till the year 1444, that France and England could agree on a truce
of some months (See Rymer’s Fdera, and the chronicles of both nations).
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adverse to concord and obedience: a poor country and a limited monarch are incapable of maintaining a standing force;
and the loose bodies of Polish and Hungarian horse were not
armed with the sentiments and weapons which, on some occasions, have given irresistible weight to the French chivalry.
Yet, on this side, the designs of the Roman pontiff, and the
eloquence of Cardinal Julian, his legate, were promoted by
the circumstances of the times:792 by the union of the two
crowns on the head of Ladislaus,793 a young and ambitious
soldier; by the valor of a hero, whose name, the name of John
Huniades, was already popular among the Christians, and
formidable to the Turks. An endless treasure of pardons and
indulgences was scattered by the legate; many private warriors of France and Germany enlisted under the holy banner;
and the crusade derived some strength, or at least some reputation, from the new allies both of Europe and Asia. A fugitive despot of Servia exaggerated the distress and ardor of the
Christians beyond the Danube, who would unanimously rise
to vindicate their religion and liberty. The Greek emperor,794
with a spirit unknown to his fathers, engaged to guard the
Bosphorus, and to sally from Constantinople at the head of
his national and mercenary troops. The sultan of Caramania795 announced the retreat of Amurath, and a powerful di792 In the Hungarian crusade, Spondanus (Annal Ecclés AD 1443, 1444) has
been my leading guide He has diligently read, and critically compared, the
Greek and Turkish materials, the historians of Hungary, Poland, and the West
His narrative is perspicuous and where he can be free from a religious bias, the
judgment of Spondanus is not contemptible.
793 I have curtailed the harsh letter (Wladislaus) which most writers affix to
his name, either in compliance with the Polish pronunciation, or to distinguish
him from his rival the infant Ladislaus of Austria Their competition for the
crown of Hungary is described by Callimachus, (l i ii p 447–486,) Bonfinius,
(Decad iii l iv,) Spondanus, and Lenfant.
794 The Greek historians, Phranza, Chalcondyles, and Ducas, do not ascribe to
their prince a very active part in this crusade, which he seems to have promoted
by his wishes, and injured by his fears.
795 Cantemir (p 88) ascribes to his policy the original plan, and transcribes
his animating epistle to the king of Hungary But the Mahometan powers are
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version in the heart of Anatolia; and if the fleets of the West
could occupy at the same moment the Straits of the Hellespont, the Ottoman monarchy would be dissevered and destroyed. Heaven and earth must rejoice in the perdition of
the miscreants; and the legate, with prudent ambiguity, instilled the opinion of the invisible, perhaps the visible, aid of
the Son of God, and his divine mother.
Of the Polish and Hungarian diets, a religious war was
the unanimous cry; and Ladislaus, after passing the Danube,
led an army of his confederate subjects as far as Sophia, the
capital of the Bulgarian kingdom. In this expedition they
obtained two signal victories, which were justly ascribed to
the valor and conduct of Huniades. In the first, with a vanguard of ten thousand men, he surprised the Turkish camp;
in the second, he vanquished and made prisoner the most
renowned of their generals, who possessed the double advantage of ground and numbers. The approach of winter,
and the natural and artificial obstacles of Mount Hæmus, arrested the progress of the hero, who measured a narrow interval of six days’ march from the foot of the mountains to the
hostile towers of Adrianople, and the friendly capital of the
Greek empire. The retreat was undisturbed; and the entrance
into Buda was at once a military and religious triumph. An
ecclesiastical procession was followed by the king and his
warriors on foot: he nicely balanced the merits and rewards
of the two nations; and the pride of conquest was blended
with the humble temper of Christianity. Thirteen bashaws,
nine standards, and four thousand captives, were unquestionable trophies; and as all were willing to believe, and none
were present to contradict, the crusaders multiplied, with unblushing confidence, the myriads of Turks whom they had
left on the field of battle.796 The most solid proof, and the
seldom it formed of the state of Christendom and the situation and correspondence of the knights of Rhodes must connect them with the sultan of Caramania.
796 In their letters to the emperor Frederic III the Hungarians slay 80,000 Turks
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most salutary consequence, of victory, was a deputation from
the divan to solicit peace, to restore Servia, to ransom the
prisoners, and to evacuate the Hungarian frontier. By this
treaty, the rational objects of the war were obtained: the king,
the despot, and Huniades himself, in the diet of Segedin,
were satisfied with public and private emolument; a truce
of ten years was concluded; and the followers of Jesus and
Mahomet, who swore on the Gospel and the Koran, attested
the word of God as the guardian of truth and the avenger
of perfidy. In the place of the Gospel, the Turkish ministers
had proposed to substitute the Eucharist, the real presence of
the Catholic deity; but the Christians refused to profane their
holy mysteries; and a superstitious conscience is less forcibly
bound by the spiritual energy, than by the outward and visible symbols of an oath.797
During the whole transaction, the cardinal legate had observed a sullen silence, unwilling to approve, and unable
to oppose, the consent of the king and people. But the diet
was not dissolved before Julian was fortified by the welcome
intelligence, that Anatolia was invaded by the Caramanian,
and Thrace by the Greek emperor; that the fleets of Genoa,
Venice, and Burgundy, were masters of the Hellespont; and
that the allies, informed of the victory, and ignorant of the
treaty, of Ladislaus, impatiently waited for the return of his
victorious army. “And is it thus,” exclaimed the cardinal,798
in one battle; but the modest Julian reduces the slaughter to 6000 or even 2000
infidels, (Æneas Sylvius in Europ c 5, and epist 44, 81, apud Spondanum).
797 See the origin of the Turkish war, and the first expedition of Ladislaus, in
the vth and vith books of the iiid decad of Bonfinius, who, in his division and
style, copies Livy with tolerable success Callimachus (l ii p 487–496) is still more
pure and authentic.
798 I do not pretend to warrant the literal accuracy of Julian’s speech, which
is variously worded by Callimachus, (l iii p 505–507,) Bonfinius, (dec iii l vi p
457, 458,) and other historians, who might indulge their own eloquence, while
they represent one of the orators of the age But they all agree in the advice and
arguments for perjury, which in the field of controversy are fiercely attacked by
the Protestants, and feebly defended by the Catholics The latter are discouraged
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“that you will desert their expectations and your own fortune? It is to them, to your God, and your fellow-Christians,
that you have pledged your faith; and that prior obligation
annihilates a rash and sacrilegious oath to the enemies of
Christ. His vicar on earth is the Roman pontiff; without
whose sanction you can neither promise nor perform. In
his name I absolve your perjury and sanctify your arms: follow my footsteps in the paths of glory and salvation; and if
still ye have scruples, devolve on my head the punishment
and the sin.” This mischievous casuistry was seconded by
his respectable character, and the levity of popular assemblies: war was resolved, on the same spot where peace had
so lately been sworn; and, in the execution of the treaty, the
Turks were assaulted by the Christians; to whom, with some
reason, they might apply the epithet of Infidels. The falsehood of Ladislaus to his word and oath was palliated by the
religion of the times: the most perfect, or at least the most
popular, excuse would have been the success of his arms and
the deliverance of the Eastern church. But the same treaty
which should have bound his conscience had diminished his
strength. On the proclamation of the peace, the French and
German volunteers departed with indignant murmurs: the
Poles were exhausted by distant warfare, and perhaps disgusted with foreign command; and their palatines accepted
the first license, and hastily retired to their provinces and castles. Even Hungary was divided by faction, or restrained by
a laudable scruple; and the relics of the crusade that marched
in the second expedition were reduced to an inadequate force
of twenty thousand men. A Walachian chief, who joined
the royal standard with his vassals, presumed to remark that
their numbers did not exceed the hunting retinue that sometimes attended the sultan; and the gift of two horses of matchless speed might admonish Ladislaus of his secret foresight
of the event. But the despot of Servia, after the restoration
of his country and children, was tempted by the promise of
by the misfortune of Warna.
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PART I
new realms; and the inexperience of the king, the enthusiasm of the legate, and the martial presumption of Huniades
himself, were persuaded that every obstacle must yield to
the invincible virtue of the sword and the cross. After the
passage of the Danube, two roads might lead to Constantinople and the Hellespont: the one direct, abrupt, and difficult
through the mountains of Hæmus; the other more tedious
and secure, over a level country, and along the shores of the
Euxine; in which their flanks, according to the Scythian discipline, might always be covered by a movable fortification of
wagons. The latter was judiciously preferred: the Catholics
marched through the plains of Bulgaria, burning, with wanton cruelty, the churches and villages of the Christian natives;
and their last station was at Warna, near the sea-shore; on
which the defeat and death of Ladislaus have bestowed a
memorable name.799
799 Warna, under the Grecian name of Odessus, was a colony of the Milesians, which they denominated from the hero Ulysses, (Cellarius, tom i p 374
D’Anville, tom i p 312) According to Arrian’s Periplus of the Euxine, (p 24,
25, in the first volume of Hudson’s Geographers,) it was situate 1740 stadia, or
furlongs, from the mouth of the Danube, 2140 from Byzantium, and 360 to the
north of a ridge of promontory of Mount Hæmus, which advances into the sea.
417
Part II
was on this fatal spot, that, instead of finding a confedIby erate
fleet to second their operations, they were alarmed
the approach of Amurath himself, who had issued from
T
his Magnesian solitude, and transported the forces of Asia to
the defence of Europe. According to some writers, the Greek
emperor had been awed, or seduced, to grant the passage of
the Bosphorus; and an indelible stain of corruption is fixed
on the Genoese, or the pope’s nephew, the Catholic admiral, whose mercenary connivance betrayed the guard of the
Hellespont. From Adrianople, the sultan advanced by hasty
marches, at the head of sixty thousand men; and when the
cardinal, and Huniades, had taken a nearer survey of the
numbers and order of the Turks, these ardent warriors proposed the tardy and impracticable measure of a retreat. The
king alone was resolved to conquer or die; and his resolution had almost been crowned with a glorious and salutary
victory. The princes were opposite to each other in the centre; and the Beglerbegs, or generals of Anatolia and Romania,
commanded on the right and left, against the adverse divisions of the despot and Huniades. The Turkish wings were
broken on the first onset: but the advantage was fatal; and
the rash victors, in the heat of the pursuit, were carried away
far from the annoyance of the enemy, or the support of their
friends. When Amurath beheld the flight of his squadrons,
he despaired of his fortune and that of the empire: a veteran
Janizary seized his horse’s bridle; and he had magnanimity to
pardon and reward the soldier who dared to perceive the terror, and arrest the flight, of his sovereign. A copy of the treaty,
the monument of Christian perfidy, had been displayed in
the front of battle; and it is said, that the sultan in his distress, lifting his eyes and his hands to heaven, implored the
protection of the God of truth; and called on the prophet Jesus himself to avenge the impious mockery of his name and
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religion.800 With inferior numbers and disordered ranks, the
king of Hungary rushed forward in the confidence of victory,
till his career was stopped by the impenetrable phalanx of the
Janizaries. If we may credit the Ottoman annals, his horse
was pierced by the javelin of Amurath;801 he fell among the
spears of the infantry; and a Turkish soldier proclaimed with
a loud voice, “Hungarians, behold the head of your king!”
The death of Ladislaus was the signal of their defeat. On his
return from an intemperate pursuit, Huniades deplored his
error, and the public loss; he strove to rescue the royal body,
till he was overwhelmed by the tumultuous crowd of the victors and vanquished; and the last efforts of his courage and
conduct were exerted to save the remnant of his Walachian
cavalry. Ten thousand Christians were slain in the disastrous
battle of Warna: the loss of the Turks, more considerable in
numbers, bore a smaller proportion to their total strength; yet
the philosophic sultan was not ashamed to confess, that his
ruin must be the consequence of a second and similar victory.802 At his command a column was erected on the spot
where Ladislaus had fallen; but the modest inscription, instead of accusing the rashness, recorded the valor, and bewailed the misfortune, of the Hungarian youth.803
800 Some Christian writers affirm, that he drew from his bosom the host or
wafer on which the treaty had not been sworn The Moslems suppose, with more
simplicity, an appeal to God and his prophet Jesus, which is likewise insinuated
by Callimachus, (l iii p 516 Spondan AD 1444, No 8).
801 A critic will always distrust these spolia opima of a victorious general, so
difficult for valor to obtain, so easy for flattery to invent, (Cantemir, p 90, 91)
Callimachus (l iii p 517) more simply and probably affirms, supervenitibus
Janizaris, telorum multitudine, non jam confossus est, quam obrutus.
802 Compare Von Hammer, p 463–M.
803 Besides some valuable hints from Æneas Sylvius, which are diligently collected by Spondanus, our best authorities are three historians of the xvth century, Philippus Callimachus, (de Rebus a Vladislao Polonorum atque Hungarorum Rege gestis, libri iii in Bel Script Rerum Hungaricarum, tom i p 433–518,)
Bonfinius, (decad iii l v p 460–467,) and Chalcondyles, (l vii p 165–179) The two
first were Italians, but they passed their lives in Poland and Hungary, (Fabric
Bibliot Latin Med et Infimæ Ætatis, tom i p 324 Vossius, de Hist Latin l iii c 8, 11
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PART II
Before I lose sight of the field of Warna, I am tempted to
pause on the character and story of two principal actors, the
cardinal Julian and John Huniades. Julian804 Cæsarini was
born of a noble family of Rome: his studies had embraced
both the Latin and Greek learning, both the sciences of divinity and law; and his versatile genius was equally adapted to
the schools, the camp, and the court. No sooner had he been
invested with the Roman purple, than he was sent into Germany to arm the empire against the rebels and heretics of Bohemia. The spirit of persecution is unworthy of a Christian;
the military profession ill becomes a priest; but the former
is excused by the times; and the latter was ennobled by the
courage of Julian, who stood dauntless and alone in the disgraceful flight of the German host. As the pope’s legate, he
opened the council of Basil; but the president soon appeared
the most strenuous champion of ecclesiastical freedom; and
an opposition of seven years was conducted by his ability
and zeal. After promoting the strongest measures against the
authority and person of Eugenius, some secret motive of interest or conscience engaged him to desert on a sudden the
popular party. The cardinal withdrew himself from Basil to
Ferrara; and, in the debates of the Greeks and Latins, the two
nations admired the dexterity of his arguments and the depth
of his theological erudition.805 In his Hungarian embassy, we
have already seen the mischievous effects of his sophistry
and eloquence, of which Julian himself was the first victim.
The cardinal, who performed the duties of a priest and a solBayle, Dictionnaire, Bonfinius) A small tract of Fælix Petancius, chancellor of
Segnia, (ad calcem Cuspinian de Cæsaribus, p 716–722,) represents the theatre
of the war in the xvth century.
804 M Lenfant has described the origin (Hist du Concile de Basle, tom i p 247,
&c) and Bohemian campaign (p 315, &c) of Cardinal Julian His services at Basil
and Ferrara, and his unfortunate end, are occasionally related by Spondanus,
and the continuator of Fleury.
805 Syropulus honorably praises the talent of an enemy, (p 117:) toiauta tina
eipen o IoulianoV peplatusmenwV agan kai logikwV, kai met episthmhV kai
deinothtoV ‘RhtprikhV.
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dier, was lost in the defeat of Warna. The circumstances of his
death are variously related; but it is believed, that a weighty
encumbrance of gold impeded his flight, and tempted the
cruel avarice of some Christian fugitives.
From an humble, or at least a doubtful origin, the merit of
John Huniades promoted him to the command of the Hungarian armies. His father was a Walachian, his mother a
Greek: her unknown race might possibly ascend to the emperors of Constantinople; and the claims of the Walachians,
with the surname of Corvinus, from the place of his nativity, might suggest a thin pretence for mingling his blood with
the patricians of ancient Rome.806 In his youth he served in
the wars of Italy, and was retained, with twelve horsemen,
by the bishop of Zagrab: the valor of the white knight807 was
soon conspicuous; he increased his fortunes by a noble and
wealthy marriage; and in the defence of the Hungarian borders he won in the same year three battles against the Turks.
By his influence, Ladislaus of Poland obtained the crown of
Hungary; and the important service was rewarded by the
title and office of Waivod of Transylvania. The first of Julian’s crusades added two Turkish laurels on his brow; and
in the public distress the fatal errors of Warna were forgotten. During the absence and minority of Ladislaus of Austria, the titular king, Huniades was elected supreme captain
and governor of Hungary; and if envy at first was silenced
by terror, a reign of twelve years supposes the arts of policy as well as of war. Yet the idea of a consummate general
is not delineated in his campaigns; the white knight fought
with the hand rather than the head, as the chief of desultory
806 See Bonfinius, decad iii l iv p 423 Could the Italian historian pronounce,
or the king of Hungary hear, without a blush, the absurd flattery which confounded the name of a Walachian village with the casual, though glorious, epithet of a single branch of the Valerian family at Rome?.
807 Philip de Comines, (Mémoires, l vi c 13,) from the tradition of the times,
mentions him with high encomiums, but under the whimsical name of the
Chevalier Blanc de Valaigne, (Valachia) The Greek Chalcondyles, and the Turkish annals of Leunclavius, presume to accuse his fidelity or valor.
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Barbarians, who attack without fear and fly without shame;
and his military life is composed of a romantic alternative
of victories and escapes. By the Turks, who employed his
name to frighten their perverse children, he was corruptly
denominated Jancus Lain, or the Wicked: their hatred is the
proof of their esteem; the kingdom which he guarded was
inaccessible to their arms; and they felt him most daring
and formidable, when they fondly believed the captain and
his country irrecoverably lost. Instead of confining himself
to a defensive war, four years after the defeat of Warna he
again penetrated into the heart of Bulgaria, and in the plain
of Cossova, sustained, till the third day, the shock of the Ottoman army, four times more numerous than his own. As he
fled alone through the woods of Walachia, the hero was surprised by two robbers; but while they disputed a gold chain
that hung at his neck, he recovered his sword, slew the one,
terrified the other, and, after new perils of captivity or death,
consoled by his presence an afflicted kingdom. But the last
and most glorious action of his life was the defence of Belgrade against the powers of Mahomet the Second in person.
After a siege of forty days, the Turks, who had already entered the town, were compelled to retreat; and the joyful nations celebrated Huniades and Belgrade as the bulwarks of
Christendom.808 About a month after this great deliverance,
the champion expired; and his most splendid epitaph is the
regret of the Ottoman prince, who sighed that he could no
longer hope for revenge against the single antagonist who
had triumphed over his arms. On the first vacancy of the
throne, Matthias Corvinus, a youth of eighteen years of age,
was elected and crowned by the grateful Hungarians. His
reign was prosperous and long: Matthias aspired to the glory
of a conqueror and a saint: but his purest merit is the en808 See Bonfinius (decad iii l viii p 492) and Spondanus, (AD 456, No 1–7) Huniades shared the glory of the defence of Belgrade with Capistran, a Franciscan
friar; and in their respective narratives, neither the saint nor the hero condescend to take notice of his rival’s merit.
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couragement of learning; and the Latin orators and historians, who were invited from Italy by the son, have shed the
lustre of their eloquence on the father’s character.809
In the list of heroes, John Huniades and Scanderbeg are
commonly associated;810 and they are both entitled to our
notice, since their occupation of the Ottoman arms delayed
the ruin of the Greek empire. John Castriot, the father of
Scanderbeg,811 was the hereditary prince of a small district
of Epirus or Albania, between the mountains and the Adriatic Sea. Unable to contend with the sultan’s power, Castriot
submitted to the hard conditions of peace and tribute: he delivered his four sons as the pledges of his fidelity; and the
Christian youths, after receiving the mark of circumcision,
were instructed in the Mahometan religion, and trained in
the arms and arts of Turkish policy.812 The three elder brothers were confounded in the crowd of slaves; and the poison
to which their deaths are ascribed cannot be verified or disproved by any positive evidence. Yet the suspicion is in a
809 See Bonfinius, decad iii l viii–decad iv l viii The observations of Spondanus
on the life and character of Matthias Corvinus are curious and critical, (AD
1464, No 1, 1475, No 6, 1476, No 14–16, 1490, No 4, 5) Italian fame was the object
of his vanity His actions are celebrated in the Epitome Rerum Hungaricarum
(p 322–412) of Peter Ranzanus, a Sicilian His wise and facetious sayings are
registered by Galestus Martius of Narni, (528–568,) and we have a particular
narrative of his wedding and coronation These three tracts are all contained in
the first vol of Bel’s Scriptores Rerum Hungaricarum.
810 They are ranked by Sir William Temple, in his pleasing Essay on Heroic
Virtue, (Works, vol iii p 385,) among the seven chiefs who have deserved without wearing, a royal crown; Belisarius, Narses, Gonsalvo of Cordova, William
first prince of Orange, Alexander duke of Parma, John Huniades, and George
Castriot, or Scanderbeg.
811 I could wish for some simple authentic memoirs of a friend of Scanderbeg,
which would introduce me to the man, the time, and the place In the old and
national history of Marinus Barletius, a priest of Scodra, (de Vita Moribus, et
Rebus gestis Georgii Castrioti, &c libri xiii p 367 Argentorat 1537, in fol,) his
gaudy and cumbersome robes are stuck with many false jewels See likewise
Chalcondyles, l vii p 185, l viii p 229.
812 His circumcision, education, &c, are marked by Marinus with brevity and
reluctance, (l i p 6, 7).
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great measure removed by the kind and paternal treatment
of George Castriot, the fourth brother, who, from his tender
youth, displayed the strength and spirit of a soldier. The successive overthrow of a Tartar and two Persians, who carried
a proud defiance to the Turkish court, recommended him to
the favor of Amurath, and his Turkish appellation of Scanderbeg, (Iskender beg,) or the lord Alexander, is an indelible
memorial of his glory and servitude. His father’s principality was reduced into a province; but the loss was compensated by the rank and title of Sanjiak, a command of five
thousand horse, and the prospect of the first dignities of the
empire. He served with honor in the wars of Europe and
Asia; and we may smile at the art or credulity of the historian, who supposes, that in every encounter he spared the
Christians, while he fell with a thundering arm on his Mussulman foes. The glory of Huniades is without reproach: he
fought in the defence of his religion and country; but the enemies who applaud the patriot, have branded his rival with
the name of traitor and apostate. In the eyes of the Christian, the rebellion of Scanderbeg is justified by his father’s
wrongs, the ambiguous death of his three brothers, his own
degradation, and the slavery of his country; and they adore
the generous, though tardy, zeal, with which he asserted the
faith and independence of his ancestors. But he had imbibed
from his ninth year the doctrines of the Koran; he was ignorant of the Gospel; the religion of a soldier is determined by
authority and habit; nor is it easy to conceive what new illumination at the age of forty813 could be poured into his soul.
His motives would be less exposed to the suspicion of interest or revenge, had he broken his chain from the moment that
he was sensible of its weight: but a long oblivion had surely
813 Since Scanderbeg died AD 1466, in the lxiiid year of his age, (Marinus, l
xiii p 370,) he was born in 1403; since he was torn from his parents by the Turks,
when he was novennis, (Marinus, l i p 1, 6,) that event must have happened in
1412, nine years before the accession of Amurath II, who must have inherited,
not acquired the Albanian slave Spondanus has remarked this inconsistency,
AD 1431, No 31, 1443, No 14.
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PART II
impaired his original right; and every year of obedience and
reward had cemented the mutual bond of the sultan and his
subject. If Scanderbeg had long harbored the belief of Christianity and the intention of revolt, a worthy mind must condemn the base dissimulation, that could serve only to betray,
that could promise only to be forsworn, that could actively
join in the temporal and spiritual perdition of so many thousands of his unhappy brethren. Shall we praise a secret correspondence with Huniades, while he commanded the vanguard of the Turkish army? shall we excuse the desertion of
his standard, a treacherous desertion which abandoned the
victory to the enemies of his benefactor? In the confusion of
a defeat, the eye of Scanderbeg was fixed on the Reis Effendi
or principal secretary: with the dagger at his breast, he extorted a firman or patent for the government of Albania; and
the murder of the guiltless scribe and his train prevented the
consequences of an immediate discovery. With some bold
companions, to whom he had revealed his design he escaped
in the night, by rapid marches, from the field or battle to
his paternal mountains. The gates of Croya were opened
to the royal mandate; and no sooner did he command the
fortress, than George Castriot dropped the mask of dissimulation; abjured the prophet and the sultan, and proclaimed
himself the avenger of his family and country. The names
of religion and liberty provoked a general revolt: the Albanians, a martial race, were unanimous to live and die with their
hereditary prince; and the Ottoman garrisons were indulged
in the choice of martyrdom or baptism. In the assembly of
the states of Epirus, Scanderbeg was elected general of the
Turkish war; and each of the allies engaged to furnish his
respective proportion of men and money. From these contributions, from his patrimonial estate, and from the valuable
salt-pits of Selina, he drew an annual revenue of two hundred thousand ducats;814 and the entire sum, exempt from
814 His
revenue and forces are luckily given by Marinus, (l ii p 44).
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PART II
the demands of luxury, was strictly appropriated to the public use. His manners were popular; but his discipline was
severe; and every superfluous vice was banished from his
camp: his example strengthened his command; and under
his conduct, the Albanians were invincible in their own opinion and that of their enemies. The bravest adventurers of
France and Germany were allured by his fame and retained
in his service: his standing militia consisted of eight thousand horse and seven thousand foot; the horses were small,
the men were active; but he viewed with a discerning eye
the difficulties and resources of the mountains; and, at the
blaze of the beacons, the whole nation was distributed in
the strongest posts. With such unequal arms Scanderbeg resisted twenty-three years the powers of the Ottoman empire;
and two conquerors, Amurath the Second, and his greater
son, were repeatedly baffled by a rebel, whom they pursued
with seeming contempt and implacable resentment. At the
head of sixty thousand horse and forty thousand Janizaries,
Amurath entered Albania: he might ravage the open country, occupy the defenceless towns, convert the churches into
mosques, circumcise the Christian youths, and punish with
death his adult and obstinate captives: but the conquests of
the sultan were confined to the petty fortress of Sfetigrade;
and the garrison, invincible to his arms, was oppressed by
a paltry artifice and a superstitious scruple.815 Amurath retired with shame and loss from the walls of Croya, the castle and residence of the Castriots; the march, the siege, the
retreat, were harassed by a vexatious, and almost invisible,
adversary;816 and the disappointment might tend to imbitter,
815 There were two Dibras, the upper and lower, the Bulgarian and Albanian:
the former, 70 miles from Croya, (l i p 17,) was contiguous to the fortress of
Sfetigrade, whose inhabitants refused to drink from a well into which a dead
dog had traitorously been cast, (l v p 139, 140) We want a good map of Epirus.
816 Compare the Turkish narrative of Cantemir (p 92) with the pompous and
prolix declamation in the ivth, vth, and vith books of the Albanian priest, who
has been copied by the tribe of strangers and moderns.
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PART II
perhaps to shorten, the last days of the sultan.817 In the fulness of conquest, Mahomet the Second still felt at his bosom
this domestic thorn: his lieutenants were permitted to negotiate a truce; and the Albanian prince may justly be praised
as a firm and able champion of his national independence.
The enthusiasm of chivalry and religion has ranked him with
the names of Alexander and Pyrrhus; nor would they blush
to acknowledge their intrepid countryman: but his narrow
dominion, and slender powers, must leave him at an humble distance below the heroes of antiquity, who triumphed
over the East and the Roman legions. His splendid achievements, the bashaws whom he encountered, the armies that
he discomfited, and the three thousand Turks who were slain
by his single hand, must be weighed in the scales of suspicious criticism. Against an illiterate enemy, and in the dark
solitude of Epirus, his partial biographers may safely indulge
the latitude of romance: but their fictions are exposed by the
light of Italian history; and they afford a strong presumption
against their own truth, by a fabulous tale of his exploits,
when he passed the Adriatic with eight hundred horse to the
succor of the king of Naples.818 Without disparagement to
his fame, they might have owned, that he was finally oppressed by the Ottoman powers: in his extreme danger he
applied to Pope Pius the Second for a refuge in the ecclesiastical state; and his resources were almost exhausted, since
Scanderbeg died a fugitive at Lissus, on the Venetian terri-
817 In honor of his hero, Barletius (l vi p 188–192) kills the sultan by disease
indeed, under the walls of Croya But this audacious fiction is disproved by the
Greeks and Turks, who agree in the time and manner of Amurath’s death at
Adrianople.
818 See the marvels of his Calabrian expedition in the ixth and xth books of
Marinus Barletius, which may be rectified by the testimony or silence of Muratori, (Annali d’Italia, tom xiii p 291,) and his original authors, (Joh Simonetta de
Rebus Francisci Sfortiæ, in Muratori, Script Rerum Ital tom xxi p 728, et alios)
The Albanian cavalry, under the name of Stradiots, soon became famous in the
wars of Italy, (Mémoires de Comines, l viii c 5).
427
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PART II
tory.819 His sepulchre was soon violated by the Turkish conquerors; but the Janizaries, who wore his bones enchased in
a bracelet, declared by this superstitious amulet their involuntary reverence for his valor. The instant ruin of his country may redound to the hero’s glory; yet, had he balanced
the consequences of submission and resistance, a patriot perhaps would have declined the unequal contest which must
depend on the life and genius of one man. Scanderbeg might
indeed be supported by the rational, though fallacious, hope,
that the pope, the king of Naples, and the Venetian republic, would join in the defence of a free and Christian people,
who guarded the sea-coast of the Adriatic, and the narrow
passage from Greece to Italy. His infant son was saved from
the national shipwreck; the Castriots820 were invested with
a Neapolitan dukedom, and their blood continues to flow in
the noblest families of the realm. A colony of Albanian fugitives obtained a settlement in Calabria, and they preserve at
this day the language and manners of their ancestors.821
In the long career of the decline and fall of the Roman empire, I have reached at length the last reign of the princes
of Constantinople, who so feebly sustained the name and
majesty of the Cæsars. On the decease of John Palæologus,
who survived about four years the Hungarian crusade,822 the
royal family, by the death of Andronicus and the monastic
819 Spondanus, from the best evidence, and the most rational criticism, has
reduced the giant Scanderbeg to the human size, (AD 1461, No 20, 1463, No 9,
1465, No 12, 13, 1467, No 1) His own letter to the pope, and the testimony of
Phranza, (l iii c 28,) a refugee in the neighboring isle of Corfu, demonstrate his
last distress, which is awkwardly concealed by Marinus Barletius, (l x).
820 See the family of the Castriots, in Ducange, (Fam Dalmaticæ, &c, xviii p
348–350).
821 This colony of Albanese is mentioned by Mr Swinburne, (Travels into the
Two Sicilies, vol i p 350–354).
822 The Chronology of Phranza is clear and authentic; but instead of four years
and seven months, Spondanus (AD 1445, No 7,) assigns seven or eight years to
the reign of the last Constantine which he deduces from a spurious epistle of
Eugenius IV to the king of Æthiopia.
428
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PART II
profession of Isidore, was reduced to three princes, Constantine, Demetrius, and Thomas, the surviving sons of the emperor Manuel. Of these the first and the last were far distant
in the Morea; but Demetrius, who possessed the domain of
Selybria, was in the suburbs, at the head of a party: his ambition was not chilled by the public distress; and his conspiracy
with the Turks and the schismatics had already disturbed the
peace of his country. The funeral of the late emperor was accelerated with singular and even suspicious haste: the claim
of Demetrius to the vacant throne was justified by a trite and
flimsy sophism, that he was born in the purple, the eldest
son of his father’s reign. But the empress-mother, the senate and soldiers, the clergy and people, were unanimous in
the cause of the lawful successor: and the despot Thomas,
who, ignorant of the change, accidentally returned to the
capital, asserted with becoming zeal the interest of his absent brother. An ambassador, the historian Phranza, was immediately despatched to the court of Adrianople. Amurath
received him with honor and dismissed him with gifts; but
the gracious approbation of the Turkish sultan announced
his supremacy, and the approaching downfall of the Eastern
empire. By the hands of two illustrious deputies, the Imperial crown was placed at Sparta on the head of Constantine. In the spring he sailed from the Morea, escaped the
encounter of a Turkish squadron, enjoyed the acclamations
of his subjects, celebrated the festival of a new reign, and exhausted by his donatives the treasure, or rather the indigence,
of the state. The emperor immediately resigned to his brothers the possession of the Morea; and the brittle friendship of
the two princes, Demetrius and Thomas, was confirmed in
their mother’s presence by the frail security of oaths and embraces. His next occupation was the choice of a consort. A
daughter of the doge of Venice had been proposed; but the
Byzantine nobles objected the distance between an hereditary
monarch and an elective magistrate; and in their subsequent
distress, the chief of that powerful republic was not unmind429
CHAPTER LXVII
PART II
ful of the affront. Constantine afterwards hesitated between
the royal families of Trebizond and Georgia; and the embassy
of Phranza represents in his public and private life the last
days of the Byzantine empire.823
The protovestiare, or great chamberlain, Phranza sailed from
Constantinople as the minister of a bridegroom; and the relics
of wealth and luxury were applied to his pompous appearance. His numerous retinue consisted of nobles and guards,
of physicians and monks: he was attended by a band of music; and the term of his costly embassy was protracted above
two years. On his arrival in Georgia or Iberia, the natives
from the towns and villages flocked around the strangers;
and such was their simplicity, that they were delighted with
the effects, without understanding the cause, of musical harmony. Among the crowd was an old man, above a hundred
years of age, who had formerly been carried away a captive by the Barbarians,824 and who amused his hearers with
a tale of the wonders of India,825 from whence he had returned to Portugal by an unknown sea.826 From this hospitable land, Phranza proceeded to the court of Trebizond,
where he was informed by the Greek prince of the recent decease of Amurath. Instead of rejoicing in the deliverance, the
experienced statesman expressed his apprehension, that an
ambitious youth would not long adhere to the sage and pa823 Phranza
(l iii c 1–6) deserves credit and esteem.
him to have been captured in 1394, in Timour’s first war in Georgia, (Sherefeddin, l iii c 50;) he might follow his Tartar master into Hindostan
in 1398, and from thence sail to the spice islands.
825 The happy and pious Indians lived a hundred and fifty years, and enjoyed
the most perfect productions of the vegetable and mineral kingdoms The animals were on a large scale: dragons seventy cubits, ants (the formica Indica) nine
inches long, sheep like elephants, elephants like sheep Quidlibet audendi, &c.
826 He sailed in a country vessel from the spice islands to one of the ports
of the exterior India; invenitque navem grandem Ibericam quâ in Portugalliam
est delatus This passage, composed in 1477, (Phranza, l iii c 30,) twenty years
before the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, is spurious or wonderful But
this new geography is sullied by the old and incompatible error which places
the source of the Nile in India.
824 Suppose
430
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PART II
cific system of his father. After the sultan’s decease, his Christian wife, Maria,827 the daughter of the Servian despot, had
been honorably restored to her parents; on the fame of her
beauty and merit, she was recommended by the ambassador
as the most worthy object of the royal choice; and Phranza recapitulates and refutes the specious objections that might be
raised against the proposal. The majesty of the purple would
ennoble an unequal alliance; the bar of affinity might be removed by liberal alms and the dispensation of the church; the
disgrace of Turkish nuptials had been repeatedly overlooked;
and, though the fair Maria was nearly fifty years of age, she
might yet hope to give an heir to the empire. Constantine listened to the advice, which was transmitted in the first ship
that sailed from Trebizond; but the factions of the court opposed his marriage; and it was finally prevented by the pious
vow of the sultana, who ended her days in the monastic profession. Reduced to the first alternative, the choice of Phranza
was decided in favor of a Georgian princess; and the vanity
of her father was dazzled by the glorious alliance. Instead of
demanding, according to the primitive and national custom,
a price for his daughter,828 he offered a portion of fifty-six
thousand, with an annual pension of five thousand, ducats;
and the services of the ambassador were repaid by an assurance, that, as his son had been adopted in baptism by the
emperor, the establishment of his daughter should be the peculiar care of the empress of Constantinople. On the return
of Phranza, the treaty was ratified by the Greek monarch,
who with his own hand impressed three vermilion crosses
on the golden bull, and assured the Georgian envoy that in
the spring his galleys should conduct the bride to her Impe827 Cantemir, (p 83,) who styles her the daughter of Lazarus Ogli, and the
Helen of the Servians, places her marriage with Amurath in the year 1424 It
will not easily be believed, that in six-and-twenty years’ cohabitation, the sultan
corpus ejus non tetigit After the taking of Constantinople, she fled to Mahomet
II, (Phranza, l iii c 22).
828 The classical reader will recollect the offers of Agamemnon, (Iliad, c v 144,)
and the general practice of antiquity.
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PART II
rial palace. But Constantine embraced his faithful servant,
not with the cold approbation of a sovereign, but with the
warm confidence of a friend, who, after a long absence, is impatient to pour his secrets into the bosom of his friend. “Since
the death of my mother and of Cantacuzene, who alone advised me without interest or passion,829 I am surrounded,”
said the emperor, “by men whom I can neither love nor trust,
nor esteem. You are not a stranger to Lucas Notaras, the great
admiral; obstinately attached to his own sentiments, he declares, both in private and public, that his sentiments are the
absolute measure of my thoughts and actions. The rest of the
courtiers are swayed by their personal or factious views; and
how can I consult the monks on questions of policy and marriage? I have yet much employment for your diligence and
fidelity. In the spring you shall engage one of my brothers
to solicit the succor of the Western powers; from the Morea
you shall sail to Cyprus on a particular commission; and
from thence proceed to Georgia to receive and conduct the
future empress.”–“Your commands,” replied Phranza, “are
irresistible; but deign, great sir,” he added, with a serious
smile, “to consider, that if I am thus perpetually absent from
my family, my wife may be tempted either to seek another
husband, or to throw herself into a monastery.” After laughing at his apprehensions, the emperor more gravely consoled
him by the pleasing assurance that this should be his last service abroad, and that he destined for his son a wealthy and
noble heiress; for himself, the important office of great logothete, or principal minister of state. The marriage was immediately stipulated: but the office, however incompatible
with his own, had been usurped by the ambition of the admiral. Some delay was requisite to negotiate a consent and
an equivalent; and the nomination of Phranza was half de829 Cantacuzene (I am ignorant of his relation to the emperor of that name)
was great domestic, a firm assertor of the Greek creed, and a brother of the
queen of Servia, whom he visited with the character of ambassador, (Syropulus,
p 37, 38, 45).
432
CHAPTER LXVII
PART II
clared, and half suppressed, lest it might be displeasing to an
insolent and powerful favorite. The winter was spent in the
preparations of his embassy; and Phranza had resolved, that
the youth his son should embrace this opportunity of foreign
travel, and be left, on the appearance of danger, with his maternal kindred of the Morea. Such were the private and public
designs, which were interrupted by a Turkish war, and finally
buried in the ruins of the empire.
433
Chapter LXVIII
R EIGN O F M AHOMET T HE S ECOND ,
E XTINCTION O F E ASTERN E MPIRE
Part I
Reign And Character Of Mahomet The Second.–
Siege, Assault, And Final Conquest,
Of Constantinople By The Turks.–
Death Of Constantine Palæologus.–
Servitude Of The Greeks.–
Extinction Of The Roman Empire In The East.–
Consternation Of Europe.–
Conquests And Death Of Mahomet The Second.
siege of Constantinople by the Turks attracts our first
T attention
to the person and character of the great deHE
stroyer. Mahomet the Second830 was the son of the second
Amurath; and though his mother has been decorated with
the titles of Christian and princess, she is more probably confounded with the numerous concubines who peopled from
every climate the harem of the sultan. His first education and
sentiments were those of a devout Mussulman; and as often
as he conversed with an infidel, he purified his hands and
face by the legal rites of ablution. Age and empire appear
to have relaxed this narrow bigotry: his aspiring genius disdained to acknowledge a power above his own; and in his
looser hours he presumed (it is said) to brand the prophet
of Mecca as a robber and impostor. Yet the sultan persevered in a decent reverence for the doctrine and discipline
of the Koran:831 his private indiscretion must have been sacred from the vulgar ear; and we should suspect the credulity
830 For the character of Mahomet II it is dangerous to trust either the Turks or
the Christians The most moderate picture appears to be drawn by Phranza, (l i c
33,) whose resentment had cooled in age and solitude; see likewise Spondanus,
(AD 1451, No 11,) and the continuator of Fleury, (tom xxii p 552,) the Elogia of
Paulus Jovius, (l iii p 164–166,) and the Dictionnaire de Bayle, (tom iii p 273–
279).
831 Cantemir, (p 115) and the mosques which he founded, attest his public
regard for religion Mahomet freely disputed with the Gennadius on the two
religions, (Spond AD 1453, No 22).
435
CHAPTER LXVIII
PART I
of strangers and sectaries, so prone to believe that a mind
which is hardened against truth must be armed with superior contempt for absurdity and error. Under the tuition of
the most skilful masters, Mahomet advanced with an early
and rapid progress in the paths of knowledge; and besides
his native tongue it is affirmed that he spoke or understood
five languages,832 the Arabic, the Persian, the Chaldæan or
Hebrew, the Latin, and the Greek. The Persian might indeed
contribute to his amusement, and the Arabic to his edification; and such studies are familiar to the Oriental youth. In
the intercourse of the Greeks and Turks, a conqueror might
wish to converse with the people over which he was ambitious to reign: his own praises in Latin poetry833 or prose834
might find a passage to the royal ear; but what use or merit
could recommend to the statesman or the scholar the uncouth
dialect of his Hebrew slaves? The history and geography
of the world were familiar to his memory: the lives of the
heroes of the East, perhaps of the West,835 excited his emula832 Quinque linguas præter suam noverat, Græcam, Latinam, Chaldaicam,
Persicam The Latin translator of Phranza has dropped the Arabic, which the
Koran must recommend to every Mussulman. It appears in the original Greek
text, p 95, edit Bonn –M.
833 Philelphus, by a Latin ode, requested and obtained the liberty of his wife’s
mother and sisters from the conqueror of Constantinople It was delivered into
the sultan’s hands by the envoys of the duke of Milan Philelphus himself was
suspected of a design of retiring to Constantinople; yet the orator often sounded
the trumpet of holy war, (see his Life by M Lancelot, in the Mémoires de
l’Académie des Inscriptions, tom x p 718, 724, &c).
834 Robert Valturio published at Verona, in 1483, his xii books de Re Militari,
in which he first mentions the use of bombs By his patron Sigismund Malatesta,
prince of Rimini, it had been addressed with a Latin epistle to Mahomet II.
835 According to Phranza, he assiduously studied the lives and actions of
Alexander, Augustus, Constantine, and Theodosius I have read somewhere,
that Plutarch’s Lives were translated by his orders into the Turkish language If
the sultan himself understood Greek, it must have been for the benefit of his
subjects Yet these lives are a school of freedom as well as of valor.
Von Hammer disdainfully rejects this fable of Mahomet’s knowledge of languages Knolles adds, that he delighted in reading the history of Alexander the
Great, and of Julius Cæsar The former, no doubt, was the Persian legend, which,
436
CHAPTER LXVIII
PART I
tion: his skill in astrology is excused by the folly of the times,
and supposes some rudiments of mathematical science; and
a profane taste for the arts is betrayed in his liberal invitation and reward of the painters of Italy.836 But the influence
of religion and learning were employed without effect on his
savage and licentious nature. I will not transcribe, nor do I
firmly believe, the stories of his fourteen pages, whose bellies
were ripped open in search of a stolen melon; or of the beauteous slave, whose head he severed from her body, to convince the Janizaries that their master was not the votary of
love.837 His sobriety is attested by the silence of the Turkish
annals, which accuse three, and three only, of the Ottoman
line of the vice of drunkenness.838 But it cannot be denied
that his passions were at once furious and inexorable; that
in the palace, as in the field, a torrent of blood was spilt on
the slightest provocation; and that the noblest of the captive youth were often dishonored by his unnatural lust. In
the Albanian war he studied the lessons, and soon surpassed
the example, of his father; and the conquest of two empires,
twelve kingdoms, and two hundred cities, a vain and flattering account, is ascribed to his invincible sword. He was
doubtless a soldier, and possibly a general; Constantinople
it is remarkable, came back to Europe, and was popular throughout the middle ages as the “Romaunt of Alexander” The founder of the Imperial dynasty
of Rome, according to M Von Hammer, is altogether unknown in the East Mahomet was a great patron of Turkish literature: the romantic poems of Persia
were translated, or imitated, under his patronage Von Hammer vol ii p 268 –M.
836 The famous Gentile Bellino, whom he had invited from Venice, was dismissed with a chain and collar of gold, and a purse of 3000 ducats With Voltaire
I laugh at the foolish story of a slave purposely beheaded to instruct the painter
in the action of the muscles.
837 This story, the subject of Johnson’s Irene, is rejected by M Von Hammer,
vol ii p 208 The German historian’s general estimate of Mahomet’s character
agrees in its more marked features with Gibbon’s–M.
838 These Imperial drunkards were Soliman I, Selim II, and Amurath IV, (Cantemir, p 61) The sophis of Persia can produce a more regular succession; and in
the last age, our European travellers were the witnesses and companions of
their revels.
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has sealed his glory; but if we compare the means, the obstacles, and the achievements, Mahomet the Second must blush
to sustain a parallel with Alexander or Timour. Under his
command, the Ottoman forces were always more numerous
than their enemies; yet their progress was bounded by the
Euphrates and the Adriatic; and his arms were checked by
Huniades and Scanderbeg, by the Rhodian knights and by
the Persian king.
In the reign of Amurath, he twice tasted of royalty, and
twice descended from the throne: his tender age was incapable of opposing his father’s restoration, but never could
he forgive the viziers who had recommended that salutary
measure. His nuptials were celebrated with the daughter
of a Turkman emir; and, after a festival of two months, he
departed from Adrianople with his bride, to reside in the
government of Magnesia. Before the end of six weeks, he
was recalled by a sudden message from the divan, which announced the decease of Amurath, and the mutinous spirit of
the Janizaries. His speed and vigor commanded their obedience: he passed the Hellespont with a chosen guard: and at
the distance of a mile from Adrianople, the viziers and emirs,
the imams and cadhis, the soldiers and the people, fell prostrate before the new sultan. They affected to weep, they affected to rejoice: he ascended the throne at the age of twentyone years, and removed the cause of sedition by the death,
the inevitable death, of his infant brothers.839840 The ambassadors of Europe and Asia soon appeared to congratulate his
accession and solicit his friendship; and to all he spoke the
language of moderation and peace. The confidence of the
Greek emperor was revived by the solemn oaths and fair as839 Calapin, one of these royal infants, was saved from his cruel brother, and
baptized at Rome under the name of Callistus Othomannus The emperor Frederic III presented him with an estate in Austria, where he ended his life; and
Cuspinian, who in his youth conversed with the aged prince at Vienna, applauds his piety and wisdom, (de Cæsaribus, p 672, 673).
840 Ahmed, the son of a Greek princess, was the object of his especial jealousy
Von Hammer, p 501–M.
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surances with which he sealed the ratification of the treaty:
and a rich domain on the banks of the Strymon was assigned
for the annual payment of three hundred thousand aspers,
the pension of an Ottoman prince, who was detained at his
request in the Byzantine court. Yet the neighbors of Mahomet
might tremble at the severity with which a youthful monarch
reformed the pomp of his father’s household: the expenses
of luxury were applied to those of ambition, and a useless
train of seven thousand falconers was either dismissed from
his service, or enlisted in his troops.841 In the first summer
of his reign, he visited with an army the Asiatic provinces;
but after humbling the pride, Mahomet accepted the submission, of the Caramanian, that he might not be diverted by the
smallest obstacle from the execution of his great design.842
The Mahometan, and more especially the Turkish casuists, have pronounced that no promise can bind the faithful against the interest and duty of their religion; and that
the sultan may abrogate his own treaties and those of his
predecessors. The justice and magnanimity of Amurath
had scorned this immoral privilege; but his son, though the
proudest of men, could stoop from ambition to the basest
arts of dissimulation and deceit. Peace was on his lips, while
war was in his heart: he incessantly sighed for the possession of Constantinople; and the Greeks, by their own indiscretion, afforded the first pretence of the fatal rupture.843 In841 The Janizaries obtained, for the first time, a gift on the accession of a new
sovereign, p 504–M.
842 See the accession of Mahomet II in Ducas, (c 33,) Phranza, (l i c 33, l iii c 2,)
Chalcondyles, (l vii p 199,) and Cantemir, (p 96).
843 Before I enter on the siege of Constantinople, I shall observe, that except
the short hints of Cantemir and Leunclavius, I have not been able to obtain any
Turkish account of this conquest; such an account as we possess of the siege
of Rhodes by Soliman II, (Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions, tom xxvi
p 723–769) I must therefore depend on the Greeks, whose prejudices, in some
degree, are subdued by their distress Our standard texts ar those of Ducas,
(c 34–42,) Phranza, (l iii c 7–20,) Chalcondyles, (l viii p 201–214,) and Leonardus Chiensis, (Historia C P a Turco expugnatæ Norimberghæ, 1544, in 4to, 20
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PART I
stead of laboring to be forgotten, their ambassadors pursued
his camp, to demand the payment, and even the increase,
of their annual stipend: the divan was importuned by their
complaints, and the vizier, a secret friend of the Christians,
was constrained to deliver the sense of his brethren. “Ye foolish and miserable Romans,” said Calil, “we know your devices, and ye are ignorant of your own danger! The scrupulous Amurath is no more; his throne is occupied by a young
conqueror, whom no laws can bind, and no obstacles can
resist: and if you escape from his hands, give praise to the
divine clemency, which yet delays the chastisement of your
sins. Why do ye seek to affright us by vain and indirect menaces? Release the fugitive Orchan, crown him sultan of Romania; call the Hungarians from beyond the Danube; arm
against us the nations of the West; and be assured, that you
will only provoke and precipitate your ruin.” But if the fears
of the ambassadors were alarmed by the stern language of
the vizier, they were soothed by the courteous audience and
friendly speeches of the Ottoman prince; and Mahomet assured them that on his return to Adrianople he would redress
the grievances, and consult the true interests, of the Greeks.
No sooner had he repassed the Hellespont, than he issued
a mandate to suppress their pension, and to expel their officers from the banks of the Strymon: in this measure he
betrayed a hostile mind; and the second order announced,
leaves) The last of these narratives is the earliest in date, since it was composed
in the Isle of Chios, the 16th of August, 1453, only seventy-nine days after the
loss of the city, and in the first confusion of ideas and passions Some hints
may be added from an epistle of Cardinal Isidore (in Farragine Rerum Turcicarum, ad calcem Chalcondyl Clauseri, Basil, 1556) to Pope Nicholas V, and a
tract of Theodosius Zygomala, which he addressed in the year 1581 to Martin
Crucius, (Turco-Græcia, l i p 74–98, Basil, 1584) The various facts and materials
are briefly, though critically, reviewed by Spondanus, (AD 1453, No 1–27) The
hearsay relations of Monstrelet and the distant Latins I shall take leave to disregard * Note: M Von Hammer has added little new information on the siege of
Constantinople, and, by his general agreement, has borne an honorable testimony to the truth, and by his close imitation to the graphic spirit and boldness,
of Gibbon–M.
440
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and in some degree commenced, the siege of Constantinople. In the narrow pass of the Bosphorus, an Asiatic fortress
had formerly been raised by his grandfather; in the opposite
situation, on the European side, he resolved to erect a more
formidable castle; and a thousand masons were commanded
to assemble in the spring on a spot named Asomaton, about
five miles from the Greek metropolis.844 Persuasion is the resource of the feeble; and the feeble can seldom persuade: the
ambassadors of the emperor attempted, without success, to
divert Mahomet from the execution of his design. They represented, that his grandfather had solicited the permission of
Manuel to build a castle on his own territories; but that this
double fortification, which would command the strait, could
only tend to violate the alliance of the nations; to intercept the
Latins who traded in the Black Sea, and perhaps to annihilate
the subsistence of the city. “I form the enterprise,” replied the
perfidious sultan, “against the city; but the empire of Constantinople is measured by her walls. Have you forgot the
distress to which my father was reduced when you formed
a league with the Hungarians; when they invaded our country by land, and the Hellespont was occupied by the French
galleys? Amurath was compelled to force the passage of the
Bosphorus; and your strength was not equal to your malevolence. I was then a child at Adrianople; the Moslems trembled; and, for a while, the Gabours845 insulted our disgrace.
But when my father had triumphed in the field of Warna, he
844 The situation of the fortress, and the topography of the Bosphorus, are
best learned from Peter Gyllius, (de Bosphoro Thracio, l ii c 13,) Leunclavius,
(Pandect p 445,) and Tournefort, (Voyage dans le Levant, tom ii lettre xv p 443,
444;) but I must regret the map or plan which Tournefort sent to the French
minister of the marine The reader may turn back to chap xvii of this History.
845 The opprobrious name which the Turks bestow on the infidels, is expressed Kabour by Ducas, and Giaour by Leunclavius and the moderns The
former term is derived by Ducange (Gloss Græc tom i p 530) from Kabouron,
in vulgar Greek, a tortoise, as denoting a retrograde motion from the faith But
alas! Gabour is no more than Gheber, which was transferred from the Persian
to the Turkish language, from the worshippers of fire to those of the crucifix,
(D’Herbelot, Bibliot Orient p 375).
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PART I
vowed to erect a fort on the western shore, and that vow it is
my duty to accomplish. Have ye the right, have ye the power,
to control my actions on my own ground? For that ground is
my own: as far as the shores of the Bosphorus, Asia is inhabited by the Turks, and Europe is deserted by the Romans.
Return, and inform your king, that the present Ottoman is
far different from his predecessors; that his resolutions surpass their wishes; and that he performs more than they could
resolve. Return in safety–but the next who delivers a similar
message may expect to be flayed alive.” After this declaration, Constantine, the first of the Greeks in spirit as in rank,846
had determined to unsheathe the sword, and to resist the approach and establishment of the Turks on the Bosphorus. He
was disarmed by the advice of his civil and ecclesiastical ministers, who recommended a system less generous, and even
less prudent, than his own, to approve their patience and
long-suffering, to brand the Ottoman with the name and guilt
of an aggressor, and to depend on chance and time for their
own safety, and the destruction of a fort which could not long
be maintained in the neighborhood of a great and populous
city. Amidst hope and fear, the fears of the wise, and the
hopes of the credulous, the winter rolled away; the proper
business of each man, and each hour, was postponed; and
the Greeks shut their eyes against the impending danger, till
the arrival of the spring and the sultan decide the assurance
of their ruin.
Of a master who never forgives, the orders are seldom disobeyed. On the twenty-sixth of March, the appointed spot
of Asomaton was covered with an active swarm of Turkish
artificers; and the materials by sea and land were diligently
transported from Europe and Asia.847 The lime had been
846 Phranza does justice to his master’s sense and courage Calliditatem hominis non ignorans Imperator prior arma movere constituit, and stigmatizes the
folly of the cum sacri tum profani proceres, which he had heard, amentes spe
vanâ pasci Ducas was not a privy-counsellor.
847 Instead of this clear and consistent account, the Turkish Annals (Cantemir,
442
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PART I
burnt in Cataphrygia; the timber was cut down in the woods
of Heraclea and Nicomedia; and the stones were dug from
the Anatolian quarries. Each of the thousand masons was
assisted by two workmen; and a measure of two cubits was
marked for their daily task. The fortress848 was built in a triangular form; each angle was flanked by a strong and massy
tower; one on the declivity of the hill, two along the seashore: a thickness of twenty-two feet was assigned for the
walls, thirty for the towers; and the whole building was covered with a solid platform of lead. Mahomet himself pressed
and directed the work with indefatigable ardor: his three
viziers claimed the honor of finishing their respective towers; the zeal of the cadhis emulated that of the Janizaries; the
meanest labor was ennobled by the service of God and the
sultan; and the diligence of the multitude was quickened by
the eye of a despot, whose smile was the hope of fortune, and
whose frown was the messenger of death. The Greek emperor beheld with terror the irresistible progress of the work;
and vainly strove, by flattery and gifts, to assuage an implacable foe, who sought, and secretly fomented, the slightest occasion of a quarrel. Such occasions must soon and inevitably be found. The ruins of stately churches, and even
the marble columns which had been consecrated to Saint
Michael the archangel, were employed without scruple by
the profane and rapacious Moslems; and some Christians,
who presumed to oppose the removal, received from their
hands the crown of martyrdom. Constantine had solicited a
Turkish guard to protect the fields and harvests of his subjects: the guard was fixed; but their first order was to allow
free pasture to the mules and horses of the camp, and to dep 97) revived the foolish tale of the ox’s hide, and Dido’s stratagem in the foundation of Carthage These annals (unless we are swayed by an anti-Christian
prejudice) are far less valuable than the Greek historians.
848 In the dimensions of this fortress, the old castle of Europe, Phranza does
not exactly agree with Chalcondyles, whose description has been verified on
the spot by his editor Leunclavius.
443
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PART I
fend their brethren if they should be molested by the natives.
The retinue of an Ottoman chief had left their horses to pass
the night among the ripe corn; the damage was felt; the insult was resented; and several of both nations were slain in a
tumultuous conflict. Mahomet listened with joy to the complaint; and a detachment was commanded to exterminate the
guilty village: the guilty had fled; but forty innocent and unsuspecting reapers were massacred by the soldiers. Till this
provocation, Constantinople had been opened to the visits of
commerce and curiosity: on the first alarm, the gates were
shut; but the emperor, still anxious for peace, released on the
third day his Turkish captives;849 and expressed, in a last
message, the firm resignation of a Christian and a soldier.
“Since neither oaths, nor treaty, nor submission, can secure
peace, pursue,” said he to Mahomet, “your impious warfare.
My trust is in God alone; if it should please him to mollify
your heart, I shall rejoice in the happy change; if he delivers
the city into your hands, I submit without a murmur to his
holy will. But until the Judge of the earth shall pronounce
between us, it is my duty to live and die in the defence of
my people.” The sultan’s answer was hostile and decisive:
his fortifications were completed; and before his departure
for Adrianople, he stationed a vigilant Aga and four hundred Janizaries, to levy a tribute on the ships of every nation
that should pass within the reach of their cannon. A Venetian
vessel, refusing obedience to the new lords of the Bosphorus, was sunk with a single bullet.850 The master and thirty
sailors escaped in the boat; but they were dragged in chains
to the Porte: the chief was impaled; his companions were
beheaded; and the historian Ducas851 beheld, at Demotica,
849 Among these were some pages of Mahomet, so conscious of his inexorable
rigor, that they begged to lose their heads in the city unless they could return
before sunset.
850 This was from a model cannon cast by Urban the Hungarian See p 291 Von
Hammer p 510–M.
851 Ducas, c 35 Phranza, (l iii c 3,) who had sailed in his vessel, commemorates
444
CHAPTER LXVIII
PART I
their bodies exposed to the wild beasts. The siege of Constantinople was deferred till the ensuing spring; but an Ottoman army marched into the Morea to divert the force of the
brothers of Constantine. At this æra of calamity, one of these
princes, the despot Thomas, was blessed or afflicted with the
birth of a son; “the last heir,” says the plaintive Phranza, “of
the last spark of the Roman empire.”852
The Greeks and the Turks passed an anxious and sleepless
winter: the former were kept awake by their fears, the latter by their hopes; both by the preparations of defence and
attack; and the two emperors, who had the most to lose or
to gain, were the most deeply affected by the national sentiment. In Mahomet, that sentiment was inflamed by the ardor
of his youth and temper: he amused his leisure with building
at Adrianople853 the lofty palace of Jehan Numa, (the watchtower of the world;) but his serious thoughts were irrevocably bent on the conquest of the city of Cæsar. At the dead of
night, about the second watch, he started from his bed, and
commanded the instant attendance of his prime vizier. The
message, the hour, the prince, and his own situation, alarmed
the guilty conscience of Calil Basha; who had possessed the
confidence, and advised the restoration, of Amurath. On the
accession of the son, the vizier was confirmed in his office and
the appearances of favor; but the veteran statesman was not
insensible that he trod on a thin and slippery ice, which might
break under his footsteps, and plunge him in the abyss. His
friendship for the Christians, which might be innocent under
the late reign, had stigmatized him with the name of Gabour
the Venetian pilot as a martyr.
852 Auctum est Palæologorum genus, et Imperii successor, parvæque Romanorum scintillæ hæres natus, Andreas, &c, (Phranza, l iii c 7) The strong
expression was inspired by his feelings.
853 Cantemir, p 97, 98 The sultan was either doubtful of his conquest, or ignorant of the superior merits of Constantinople A city or a kingdom may sometimes be ruined by the Imperial fortune of their sovereign.
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Ortachi, or foster-brother of the infidels;854 and his avarice
entertained a venal and treasonable correspondence, which
was detected and punished after the conclusion of the war.
On receiving the royal mandate, he embraced, perhaps for
the last time, his wife and children; filled a cup with pieces
of gold, hastened to the palace, adored the sultan, and offered, according to the Oriental custom, the slight tribute of
his duty and gratitude.855 “It is not my wish,” said Mahomet,
“to resume my gifts, but rather to heap and multiply them on
thy head. In my turn, I ask a present far more valuable and
important;–Constantinople.” As soon as the vizier had recovered from his surprise, “The same God,” said he, “who has
already given thee so large a portion of the Roman empire,
will not deny the remnant, and the capital. His providence,
and thy power, assure thy success; and myself, with the rest
of thy faithful slaves, will sacrifice our lives and fortunes.”–
“Lala,”856 (or preceptor,) continued the sultan, “do you see
this pillow? All the night, in my agitation, I have pulled it on
one side and the other; I have risen from my bed, again have I
lain down; yet sleep has not visited these weary eyes. Beware
of the gold and silver of the Romans: in arms we are superior;
and with the aid of God, and the prayers of the prophet, we
shall speedily become masters of Constantinople.” To sound
the disposition of his soldiers, he often wandered through the
streets alone, and in disguise; and it was fatal to discover the
854 SuntrojoV, by the president Cousin, is translated père nourricier, most correctly indeed from the Latin version; but in his haste he has overlooked the
note by which Ishmael Boillaud (ad Ducam, c 35) acknowledges and rectifies
his own error.
855 The Oriental custom of never appearing without gifts before a sovereign or
a superior is of high antiquity, and seems analogous with the idea of sacrifice,
still more ancient and universal See the examples of such Persian gifts, Ælian,
Hist Var l i c 31, 32, 33.
856 The Lala of the Turks (Cantemir, p 34) and the Tata of the Greeks (Ducas, c
35) are derived from the natural language of children; and it may be observed,
that all such primitive words which denote their parents, are the simple repetition of one syllable, composed of a labial or a dental consonant and an open
vowel, (Des Brosses, Méchanisme des Langues, tom i p 231–247).
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PART I
sultan, when he wished to escape from the vulgar eye. His
hours were spent in delineating the plan of the hostile city;
in debating with his generals and engineers, on what spot he
should erect his batteries; on which side he should assault
the walls; where he should spring his mines; to what place
he should apply his scaling-ladders: and the exercises of the
day repeated and proved the lucubrations of the night.
447
Part II
the implements of destruction, he studied with
A
peculiar care the recent and tremendous discovery of
the Latins; and his artillery surpassed whatever had yet apMONG
peared in the world. A founder of cannon, a Dane857 or Hungarian, who had been almost starved in the Greek service,
deserted to the Moslems, and was liberally entertained by
the Turkish sultan. Mahomet was satisfied with the answer
to his first question, which he eagerly pressed on the artist.
“Am I able to cast a cannon capable of throwing a ball or
stone of sufficient size to batter the walls of Constantinople?
I am not ignorant of their strength; but were they more solid
than those of Babylon, I could oppose an engine of superior
power: the position and management of that engine must be
left to your engineers.” On this assurance, a foundry was
established at Adrianople: the metal was prepared; and at
the end of three months, Urban produced a piece of brass
ordnance of stupendous, and almost incredible magnitude;
a measure of twelve palms is assigned to the bore; and the
stone bullet weighed above six hundred pounds.858859 A vacant place before the new palace was chosen for the first experiment; but to prevent the sudden and mischievous effects
of astonishment and fear, a proclamation was issued, that
the cannon would be discharged the ensuing day. The ex857 Gibbon has written Dane by mistake for Dace, or Dacian Lax ti kinoV?
Chalcondyles, Von Hammer, p 510–M.
858 The Attic talent weighed about sixty minæ, or avoirdupois pounds (see
Hooper on Ancient Weights, Measures, &c;) but among the modern Greeks,
that classic appellation was extended to a weight of one hundred, or one hundred and twenty-five pounds, (Ducange, talanton) Leonardus Chiensis measured the ball or stone of the second cannon Lapidem, qui palmis undecim ex
meis ambibat in gyro.
859 1200, according to Leonardus Chiensis Von Hammer states that he had
himself seen the great cannon of the Dardanelles, in which a tailor who had
run away from his creditors, had concealed himself several days Von Hammer
had measured balls twelve spans round (note p 666) –M.
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PART II
plosion was felt or heard in a circuit of a hundred furlongs:
the ball, by the force of gunpowder, was driven above a mile;
and on the spot where it fell, it buried itself a fathom deep in
the ground. For the conveyance of this destructive engine, a
frame or carriage of thirty wagons was linked together and
drawn along by a team of sixty oxen: two hundred men on
both sides were stationed, to poise and support the rolling
weight; two hundred and fifty workmen marched before to
smooth the way and repair the bridges; and near two months
were employed in a laborious journey of one hundred and
fifty miles. A lively philosopher860 derides on this occasion
the credulity of the Greeks, and observes, with much reason,
that we should always distrust the exaggerations of a vanquished people. He calculates, that a ball, even o two hundred pounds, would require a charge of one hundred and
fifty pounds of powder; and that the stroke would be feeble and impotent, since not a fifteenth part of the mass could
be inflamed at the same moment. A stranger as I am to the
art of destruction, I can discern that the modern improvements of artillery prefer the number of pieces to the weight
of metal; the quickness of the fire to the sound, or even the
consequence, of a single explosion. Yet I dare not reject the
positive and unanimous evidence of contemporary writers;
nor can it seem improbable, that the first artists, in their rude
and ambitious efforts, should have transgressed the standard
of moderation. A Turkish cannon, more enormous than that
of Mahomet, still guards the entrance of the Dardanelles; and
if the use be inconvenient, it has been found on a late trial
that the effect was far from contemptible. A stone bullet of
eleven hundred pounds’ weight was once discharged with
three hundred and thirty pounds of powder: at the distance
of six hundred yards it shivered into three rocky fragments;
traversed the strait; and leaving the waters in a foam, again
860 See Voltaire, (Hist Générale, c xci p 294, 295) He was ambitious of universal monarchy; and the poet frequently aspires to the name and style of an
astronomer, a chemist, &c.
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PART II
rose and bounded against the opposite hill.861
While Mahomet threatened the capital of the East, the
Greek emperor implored with fervent prayers the assistance
of earth and heaven. But the invisible powers were deaf to
his supplications; and Christendom beheld with indifference
the fall of Constantinople, while she derived at least some
promise of supply from the jealous and temporal policy of
the sultan of Egypt. Some states were too weak, and others
too remote; by some the danger was considered as imaginary
by others as inevitable: the Western princes were involved in
their endless and domestic quarrels; and the Roman pontiff
was exasperated by the falsehood or obstinacy of the Greeks.
Instead of employing in their favor the arms and treasures of
Italy, Nicholas the Fifth had foretold their approaching ruin;
and his honor was engaged in the accomplishment of his
prophecy.@@See the curious Christian and Mahometan predictions of the fall of Constantinople, Von Hammer, p 518–
M.862 Non audivit, indignum ducens, says the honest Antoninus; but as the Roman court was afterwards grieved and
ashamed, we find the more courtly expression of Platina, in
animo fuisse pontifici juvare Græcos, and the positive assertion of Æneas Sylvius, structam classem &c (Spond AD 1453,
No 3).863 Antonin in Proem–Epist Cardinal Isidor apud Spon861 The Baron de Tott, (tom iii p 85–89,) who fortified the Dardanelles against
the Russians, describes in a lively, and even comic, strain his own prowess, and
the consternation of the Turks But that adventurous traveller does not possess
the art of gaining our confidence.
862 Perhaps he was softened by the last extremity o their distress; but his compassion was tardy; his efforts were faint and unavailing; and Constantinople
had fallen, before the squadrons of Genoa and Venice could sail from their harbors.
863 Even the princes of the Morea and of the Greek islands affected a cold neutrality: the Genoese colony of Galata negotiated a private treaty; and the sultan
indulged them in the delusive hope, that by his clemency they might survive
the ruin of the empire. A plebeian crowd, and some Byzantine nobles basely
withdrew from the danger of their country; and the avarice of the rich denied
the emperor, and reserved for the Turks, the secret treasures which might have
raised in their defence whole armies of mercenaries.
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danum and Dr Johnson, in the tragedy of Irene, has happily
seized this characteristic circumstance:–
The groaning Greeks dig up the golden caverns
The accumulated wealth of hoarding ages;
That wealth which, granted to their weeping prince,
Had ranged embattled nations at their gates.@@ The indigent and solitary prince prepared, however, to sustain his
formidable adversary; but if his courage were equal to the
peril, his strength was inadequate to the contest. In the beginning of the spring, the Turkish vanguard swept the towns
and villages as far as the gates of Constantinople: submission
was spared and protected; whatever presumed to resist was
exterminated with fire and sword. The Greek places on the
Black Sea, Mesembria, Acheloum, and Bizon, surrendered on
the first summons; Selybria alone deserved the honors of a
siege or blockade; and the bold inhabitants, while they were
invested by land, launched their boats, pillaged the opposite
coast of Cyzicus, and sold their captives in the public market. But on the approach of Mahomet himself all was silent
and prostrate: he first halted at the distance of five miles;
and from thence advancing in battle array, planted before the
gates of St. Romanus the Imperial standard; and on the sixth
day of April formed the memorable siege of Constantinople.
The troops of Asia and Europe extended on the right and
left from the Propontis to the harbor; the Janizaries in the
front were stationed before the sultan’s tent; the Ottoman
line was covered by a deep intrenchment; and a subordinate
army enclosed the suburb of Galata, and watched the doubtful faith of the Genoese. The inquisitive Philelphus, who
resided in Greece about thirty years before the siege, is confident, that all the Turkish forces of any name or value could
not exceed the number of sixty thousand horse and twenty
thousand foot; and he upbraids the pusillanimity of the nations, who had tamely yielded to a handful of Barbarians.
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Such indeed might be the regular establishment of the Capiculi,864 the troops of the Porte who marched with the prince,
and were paid from his royal treasury. But the bashaws, in
their respective governments, maintained or levied a provincial militia; many lands were held by a military tenure; many
volunteers were attracted by the hope of spoil and the sound
of the holy trumpet invited a swarm of hungry and fearless
fanatics, who might contribute at least to multiply the terrors, and in a first attack to blunt the swords, of the Christians. The whole mass of the Turkish powers is magnified by
Ducas, Chalcondyles, and Leonard of Chios, to the amount
of three or four hundred thousand men; but Phranza was a
less remote and more accurate judge; and his precise definition of two hundred and fifty-eight thousand does not exceed the measure of experience and probability.865 The navy
of the besiegers was less formidable: the Propontis was overspread with three hundred and twenty sail; but of these no
more than eighteen could be rated as galleys of war; and the
far greater part must be degraded to the condition of storeships and transports, which poured into the camp fresh supplies of men, ammunition, and provisions. In her last decay, Constantinople was still peopled with more than a hundred thousand inhabitants; but these numbers are found in
the accounts, not of war, but of captivity; and they mostly
consisted of mechanics, of priests, of women, and of men devoid of that spirit which even women have sometimes exerted for the common safety. I can suppose, I could almost
excuse, the reluctance of subjects to serve on a distant fron864 The palatine troops are styled Capiculi, the provincials, Seratculi; and most
of the names and institutions of the Turkish militia existed before the Canon
Nameh of Soliman II, from which, and his own experience, Count Marsigli has
composed his military state of the Ottoman empire.
865 The observation of Philelphus is approved by Cuspinian in the year 1508,
(de Cæsaribus, in Epilog de Militiâ Turcicâ, p 697) Marsigli proves, that the
effective armies of the Turks are much less numerous than they appear In the
army that besieged Constantinople Leonardus Chiensis reckons no more than
15,000 Janizaries.
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tier, at the will of a tyrant; but the man who dares not expose his life in the defence of his children and his property,
has lost in society the first and most active energies of nature. By the emperor’s command, a particular inquiry had
been made through the streets and houses, how many of the
citizens, or even of the monks, were able and willing to bear
arms for their country. The lists were intrusted to Phranza;866
and, after a diligent addition, he informed his master, with
grief and surprise, that the national defence was reduced to
four thousand nine hundred and seventy Romans. Between
Constantine and his faithful minister this comfortless secret
was preserved; and a sufficient proportion of shields, crossbows, and muskets, were distributed from the arsenal to the
city bands. They derived some accession from a body of two
thousand strangers, under the command of John Justiniani,
a noble Genoese; a liberal donative was advanced to these
auxiliaries; and a princely recompense, the Isle of Lemnos,
was promised to the valor and victory of their chief. A strong
chain was drawn across the mouth of the harbor: it was supported by some Greek and Italian vessels of war and merchandise; and the ships of every Christian nation, that successively arrived from Candia and the Black Sea, were detained
for the public service. Against the powers of the Ottoman
empire, a city of the extent of thirteen, perhaps of sixteen,
miles was defended by a scanty garrison of seven or eight
thousand soldiers. Europe and Asia were open to the besiegers; but the strength and provisions of the Greeks must
sustain a daily decrease; nor could they indulge the expectation of any foreign succor or supply.
The primitive Romans would have drawn their swords in
the resolution of death or conquest. The primitive Christians
might have embraced each other, and awaited in patience
866 Ego, eidem (Imp) tabellas extribui non absque dolore et mstitia, mansitque
apud nos duos aliis occultus numerus, (Phranza, l iii c 8) With some indulgence
for national prejudices, we cannot desire a more authentic witness, not only of
public facts, but of private counsels.
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and charity the stroke of martyrdom. But the Greeks of Constantinople were animated only by the spirit of religion, and
that spirit was productive only of animosity and discord. Before his death, the emperor John Palæologus had renounced
the unpopular measure of a union with the Latins; nor was
the idea revived, till the distress of his brother Constantine
imposed a last trial of flattery and dissimulation.867 With the
demand of temporal aid, his ambassadors were instructed
to mingle the assurance of spiritual obedience: his neglect
of the church was excused by the urgent cares of the state;
and his orthodox wishes solicited the presence of a Roman
legate. The Vatican had been too often deluded; yet the signs
of repentance could not decently be overlooked; a legate was
more easily granted than an army; and about six months before the final destruction, the cardinal Isidore of Russia appeared in that character with a retinue of priests and soldiers.
The emperor saluted him as a friend and father; respectfully
listened to his public and private sermons; and with the most
obsequious of the clergy and laymen subscribed the act of
union, as it had been ratified in the council of Florence. On
the twelfth of December, the two nations, in the church of St.
Sophia, joined in the communion of sacrifice and prayer; and
the names of the two pontiffs were solemnly commemorated;
the names of Nicholas the Fifth, the vicar of Christ, and of the
patriarch Gregory, who had been driven into exile by a rebellious people.
But the dress and language of the Latin priest who officiated at the altar were an object of scandal; and it was observed with horror, that he consecrated a cake or wafer of
unleavened bread, and poured cold water into the cup of the
sacrament. A national historian acknowledges with a blush,
that none of his countrymen, not the emperor himself, were
867 In Spondanus, the narrative of the union is not only partial, but imperfect
The bishop of Pamiers died in 1642, and the history of Ducas, which represents
these scenes (c 36, 37) with such truth and spirit, was not printed till the year
1649.
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sincere in this occasional conformity.868 Their hasty and unconditional submission was palliated by a promise of future
revisal; but the best, or the worst, of their excuses was the
confession of their own perjury. When they were pressed
by the reproaches of their honest brethren, “Have patience,”
they whispered, “have patience till God shall have delivered
the city from the great dragon who seeks to devour us. You
shall then perceive whether we are truly reconciled with the
Azymites.” But patience is not the attribute of zeal; nor can
the arts of a court be adapted to the freedom and violence of
popular enthusiasm. From the dome of St. Sophia the inhabitants of either sex, and of every degree, rushed in crowds to
the cell of the monk Gennadius,869 to consult the oracle of the
church. The holy man was invisible; entranced, as it should
seem, in deep meditation, or divine rapture: but he had exposed on the door of his cell a speaking tablet; and they successively withdrew, after reading those tremendous words:
“O miserable Romans, why will ye abandon the truth? and
why, instead of confiding in God, will ye put your trust in
the Italians? In losing your faith you will lose your city. Have
mercy on me, O Lord! I protest in thy presence that I am innocent of the crime. O miserable Romans, consider, pause, and
repent. At the same moment that you renounce the religion
of your fathers, by embracing impiety, you submit to a foreign servitude.” According to the advice of Gennadius, the
religious virgins, as pure as angels, and as proud as dæmons,
rejected the act of union, and abjured all communion with the
868 Phranza, one of the conforming Greeks, acknowledges that the measure
was adopted only propter spem auxilii; he affirms with pleasure, that those
who refused to perform their devotions in St Sophia, extra culpam et in pace
essent, (l iii c 20).
869 His primitive and secular name was George Scholarius, which he changed
for that of Gennadius, either when he became a monk or a patriarch His defence, at Florence, of the same union, which he so furiously attacked at Constantinople, has tempted Leo Allatius (Diatrib de Georgiis, in Fabric Bibliot
Græc tom x p 760–786) to divide him into two men; but Renaudot (p 343–383)
has restored the identity of his person and the duplicity of his character.
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present and future associates of the Latins; and their example was applauded and imitated by the greatest part of the
clergy and people. From the monastery, the devout Greeks
dispersed themselves in the taverns; drank confusion to the
slaves of the pope; emptied their glasses in honor of the image of the holy Virgin; and besought her to defend against
Mahomet the city which she had formerly saved from Chosroes and the Chagan. In the double intoxication of zeal and
wine, they valiantly exclaimed, “What occasion have we for
succor, or union, or Latins? Far from us be the worship of
the Azymites!” During the winter that preceded the Turkish conquest, the nation was distracted by this epidemical
frenzy; and the season of Lent, the approach of Easter, instead of breathing charity and love, served only to fortify the
obstinacy and influence of the zealots. The confessors scrutinized and alarmed the conscience of their votaries, and a
rigorous penance was imposed on those who had received
the communion from a priest who had given an express or
tacit consent to the union. His service at the altar propagated
the infection to the mute and simple spectators of the ceremony: they forfeited, by the impure spectacle, the virtue of
the sacerdotal character; nor was it lawful, even in danger
of sudden death, to invoke the assistance of their prayers or
absolution. No sooner had the church of St. Sophia been
polluted by the Latin sacrifice, than it was deserted as a Jewish synagogue, or a heathen temple, by the clergy and people; and a vast and gloomy silence prevailed in that venerable dome, which had so often smoked with a cloud of incense, blazed with innumerable lights, and resounded with
the voice of prayer and thanksgiving. The Latins were the
most odious of heretics and infidels; and the first minister of
the empire, the great duke, was heard to declare, that he had
rather behold in Constantinople the turban of Mahomet, than
the pope’s tiara or a cardinal’s hat.870 A sentiment so unwor870 Fakiolion,
kaluptra, may be fairly translated a cardinal’s hat The difference
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thy of Christians and patriots was familiar and fatal to the
Greeks: the emperor was deprived of the affection and support of his subjects; and their native cowardice was sanctified
by resignation to the divine decree, or the visionary hope of
a miraculous deliverance.
Of the triangle which composes the figure of Constantinople, the two sides along the sea were made inaccessible to
an enemy; the Propontis by nature, and the harbor by art.
Between the two waters, the basis of the triangle, the land
side was protected by a double wall, and a deep ditch of the
depth of one hundred feet. Against this line of fortification,
which Phranza, an eye-witness, prolongs to the measure of
six miles,871 the Ottomans directed their principal attack; and
the emperor, after distributing the service and command of
the most perilous stations, undertook the defence of the external wall. In the first days of the siege the Greek soldiers
descended into the ditch, or sallied into the field; but they
soon discovered, that, in the proportion of their numbers, one
Christian was of more value than twenty Turks: and, after
these bold preludes, they were prudently content to maintain the rampart with their missile weapons. Nor should this
prudence be accused of pusillanimity. The nation was indeed
pusillanimous and base; but the last Constantine deserves the
name of a hero: his noble band of volunteers was inspired
with Roman virtue; and the foreign auxiliaries supported the
honor of the Western chivalry. The incessant volleys of lances
and arrows were accompanied with the smoke, the sound,
and the fire, of their musketry and cannon. Their small arms
discharged at the same time either five, or even ten, balls
of lead, of the size of a walnut; and, according to the closeness of the ranks and the force of the powder, several breastof the Greek and Latin habits imbittered the schism.
871 We are obliged to reduce the Greek miles to the smallest measure which
is preserved in the wersts of Russia, of 547 French toises, and of 104 2/5 to a
degree The six miles of Phranza do not exceed four English miles, (D’Anville,
Mesures Itineraires, p 61, 123, &c).
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plates and bodies were transpierced by the same shot. But
the Turkish approaches were soon sunk in trenches, or covered with ruins. Each day added to the science of the Christians; but their inadequate stock of gunpowder was wasted
in the operations of each day. Their ordnance was not powerful, either in size or number; and if they possessed some
heavy cannon, they feared to plant them on the walls, lest
the aged structure should be shaken and overthrown by the
explosion.872 The same destructive secret had been revealed
to the Moslems; by whom it was employed with the superior energy of zeal, riches, and despotism. The great cannon
of Mahomet has been separately noticed; an important and
visible object in the history of the times: but that enormous
engine was flanked by two fellows almost of equal magnitude:873 the long order of the Turkish artillery was pointed
against the walls; fourteen batteries thundered at once on the
most accessible places; and of one of these it is ambiguously
expressed, that it was mounted with one hundred and thirty
guns, or that it discharged one hundred and thirty bullets.
Yet in the power and activity of the sultan, we may discern
the infancy of the new science. Under a master who counted
the moments, the great cannon could be loaded and fired no
more than seven times in one day.874 The heated metal unfortunately burst; several workmen were destroyed; and the
872 At indies doctiores nostri facti paravere contra hostes machinamenta, quæ
tamen avare dabantur Pulvis erat nitri modica exigua; tela modica; bombardæ,
si aderant incommoditate loci primum hostes offendere, maceriebus alveisque
tectos, non poterant Nam si quæ magnæ erant, ne murus concuteretur noster,
quiescebant This passage of Leonardus Chiensis is curious and important.
873 According to Chalcondyles and Phranza, the great cannon burst; an incident which, according to Ducas, was prevented by the artist’s skill It is evident
that they do not speak of the same gun * Note: They speak, one of a Byzantine,
one of a Turkish, gun Von Hammer note, p 669.
874 Near a hundred years after the siege of Constantinople, the French and
English fleets in the Channel were proud of firing 300 shot in an engagement of
two hours, (Mémoires de Martin du Bellay, l x, in the Collection Générale, tom
xxi p 239).
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skill of an artist875 was admired who bethought himself of
preventing the danger and the accident, by pouring oil, after
each explosion, into the mouth of the cannon.
The first random shots were productive of more sound than
effect; and it was by the advice of a Christian, that the engineers were taught to level their aim against the two opposite
sides of the salient angles of a bastion. However imperfect,
the weight and repetition of the fire made some impression
on the walls; and the Turks, pushing their approaches to the
edge of the ditch, attempted to fill the enormous chasm, and
to build a road to the assault.876 Innumerable fascines, and
hogsheads, and trunks of trees, were heaped on each other;
and such was the impetuosity of the throng, that the foremost
and the weakest were pushed headlong down the precipice,
and instantly buried under the accumulated mass. To fill the
ditch was the toil of the besiegers; to clear away the rubbish
was the safety of the besieged; and after a long and bloody
conflict, the web that had been woven in the day was still unravelled in the night. The next resource of Mahomet was the
practice of mines; but the soil was rocky; in every attempt he
was stopped and undermined by the Christian engineers; nor
had the art been yet invented of replenishing those subterraneous passages with gunpowder, and blowing whole towers
and cities into the air.877 A circumstance that distinguishes
the siege of Constantinople is the reunion of the ancient and
modern artillery. The cannon were intermingled with the me875 The
founder of the gun Von Hammer, p 526.
have selected some curious facts, without striving to emulate the bloody
and obstinate eloquence of the abbé de Vertot, in his prolix descriptions of the
sieges of Rhodes, Malta, &c But that agreeable historian had a turn for romance;
and as he wrote to please the order he had adopted the same spirit of enthusiasm and chivalry.
877 The first theory of mines with gunpowder appears in 1480 in a MS of
George of Sienna, (Tiraboschi, tom vi P i p 324) They were first practised by
Sarzanella, in 1487; but the honor and improvement in 1503 is ascribed to Peter
of Navarre, who used them with success in the wars of Italy, (Hist de la Ligue
de Cambray, tom ii p 93–97).
876 I
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chanical engines for casting stones and darts; the bullet and
the battering-ram878 were directed against the same walls:
nor had the discovery of gunpowder superseded the use of
the liquid and unextinguishable fire. A wooden turret of
the largest size was advanced on rollers this portable magazine of ammunition and fascines was protected by a threefold
covering of bulls’ hides: incessant volleys were securely discharged from the loop-holes; in the front, three doors were
contrived for the alternate sally and retreat of the soldiers
and workmen. They ascended by a staircase to the upper
platform, and, as high as the level of that platform, a scalingladder could be raised by pulleys to form a bridge, and grapple with the adverse rampart. By these various arts of annoyance, some as new as they were pernicious to the Greeks,
the tower of St. Romanus was at length overturned: after
a severe struggle, the Turks were repulsed from the breach,
and interrupted by darkness; but they trusted that with the
return of light they should renew the attack with fresh vigor
and decisive success. Of this pause of action, this interval of
hope, each moment was improved, by the activity of the emperor and Justiniani, who passed the night on the spot, and
urged the labors which involved the safety of the church and
city. At the dawn of day, the impatient sultan perceived, with
astonishment and grief, that his wooden turret had been reduced to ashes: the ditch was cleared and restored; and the
tower of St. Romanus was again strong and entire. He deplored the failure of his design; and uttered a profane exclamation, that the word of the thirty-seven thousand prophets
should not have compelled him to believe that such a work,
in so short a time, could have been accomplished by the infidels.
878 The
battering-ram according to Von Hammer, (p 670,) was not used–M.
460
Part III
generosity of the Christian princes was cold and tardy;
T
but in the first apprehension of a siege, Constantine had
negotiated, in the isles of the Archipelago, the Morea, and
HE
Sicily, the most indispensable supplies. As early as the beginning of April, five879 great ships, equipped for merchandise and war, would have sailed from the harbor of Chios,
had not the wind blown obstinately from the north.880 One
of these ships bore the Imperial flag; the remaining four belonged to the Genoese; and they were laden with wheat and
barley, with wine, oil, and vegetables, and, above all, with
soldiers and mariners for the service of the capital. After
a tedious delay, a gentle breeze, and, on the second day, a
strong gale from the south, carried them through the Hellespont and the Propontis: but the city was already invested
by sea and land; and the Turkish fleet, at the entrance of the
Bosphorus, was stretched from shore to shore, in the form of
a crescent, to intercept, or at least to repel, these bold auxiliaries. The reader who has present to his mind the geographical picture of Constantinople, will conceive and admire the
greatness of the spectacle. The five Christian ships continued to advance with joyful shouts, and a full press both of
sails and oars, against a hostile fleet of three hundred vessels; and the rampart, the camp, the coasts of Europe and
Asia, were lined with innumerable spectators, who anxiously
awaited the event of this momentous succor. At the first
view that event could not appear doubtful; the superiority
of the Moslems was beyond all measure or account: and, in
879 It is singular that the Greeks should not agree in the number of these illustrious vessels; the five of Ducas, the fourof Phranza and Leonardus, and the two
of Chalcondyles, must be extended to the smaller, or confined to the larger, size
Voltaire, in giving one of these ships to Frederic III, confounds the emperors of
the East and West.
880 In bold defiance, or rather in gross ignorance, of language and geography,
the president Cousin detains them in Chios with a south, and wafts them to
Constantinople with a north, wind.
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a calm, their numbers and valor must inevitably have prevailed. But their hasty and imperfect navy had been created,
not by the genius of the people, but by the will of the sultan: in the height of their prosperity, the Turks have acknowledged, that if God had given them the earth, he had left the
sea to the infidels;881 and a series of defeats, a rapid progress
of decay, has established the truth of their modest confession.
Except eighteen galleys of some force, the rest of their fleet
consisted of open boats, rudely constructed and awkwardly
managed, crowded with troops, and destitute of cannon; and
since courage arises in a great measure from the consciousness of strength, the bravest of the Janizaries might tremble
on a new element. In the Christian squadron, five stout and
lofty ships were guided by skilful pilots, and manned with
the veterans of Italy and Greece, long practised in the arts and
perils of the sea. Their weight was directed to sink or scatter
the weak obstacles that impeded their passage: their artillery
swept the waters: their liquid fire was poured on the heads of
the adversaries, who, with the design of boarding, presumed
to approach them; and the winds and waves are always on
the side of the ablest navigators. In this conflict, the Imperial vessel, which had been almost overpowered, was rescued
by the Genoese; but the Turks, in a distant and closer attack,
were twice repulsed with considerable loss. Mahomet himself sat on horseback on the beach to encourage their valor
by his voice and presence, by the promise of reward, and by
fear more potent than the fear of the enemy. The passions
of his soul, and even the gestures of his body,882 seemed to
imitate the actions of the combatants; and, as if he had been
the lord of nature, he spurred his horse with a fearless and
881 The perpetual decay and weakness of the Turkish navy may be observed
in Ricaut, (State of the Ottoman Empire, p 372–378,) Thevenot, (Voyages, P i p
229–242, and Tott), (Mémoires, tom iii;) the last of whom is always solicitous to
amuse and amaze his reader.
882 I must confess that I have before my eyes the living picture which Thucydides (l vii c 71) has drawn of the passions and gestures of the Athenians in a
naval engagement in the great harbor of Syracuse.
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impotent effort into the sea. His loud reproaches, and the
clamors of the camp, urged the Ottomans to a third attack,
more fatal and bloody than the two former; and I must repeat, though I cannot credit, the evidence of Phranza, who
affirms, from their own mouth, that they lost above twelve
thousand men in the slaughter of the day. They fled in disorder to the shores of Europe and Asia, while the Christian
squadron, triumphant and unhurt, steered along the Bosphorus, and securely anchored within the chain of the harbor. In
the confidence of victory, they boasted that the whole Turkish
power must have yielded to their arms; but the admiral, or
captain bashaw, found some consolation for a painful wound
in his eye, by representing that accident as the cause of his defeat. Balthi Ogli was a renegade of the race of the Bulgarian
princes: his military character was tainted with the unpopular vice of avarice; and under the despotism of the prince
or people, misfortune is a sufficient evidence of guilt.883 His
rank and services were annihilated by the displeasure of Mahomet. In the royal presence, the captain bashaw was extended on the ground by four slaves, and received one hundred strokes with a golden rod:884 his death had been pronounced; and he adored the clemency of the sultan, who was
satisfied with the milder punishment of confiscation and exile. The introduction of this supply revived the hopes of the
Greeks, and accused the supineness of their Western allies.
Amidst the deserts of Anatolia and the rocks of Palestine, the
millions of the crusades had buried themselves in a voluntary
and inevitable grave; but the situation of the Imperial city
was strong against her enemies, and accessible to her friends;
and a rational and moderate armament of the marine states
883 According to Ducas, one of the Afabi beat out his eye with a stone Compare Von Hammer–M.
884 According to the exaggeration or corrupt text of Ducas, (c 38,) this golden
bar was of the enormous or incredible weight of 500 libræ, or pounds Bouillaud’s reading of 500 drachms, or five pounds, is sufficient to exercise the arm
of Mahomet, and bruise the back of his admiral.
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might have saved the relics of the Roman name, and maintained a Christian fortress in the heart of the Ottoman empire.
Yet this was the sole and feeble attempt for the deliverance of
Constantinople: the more distant powers were insensible of
its danger; and the ambassador of Hungary, or at least of Huniades, resided in the Turkish camp, to remove the fears, and
to direct the operations, of the sultan.885
It was difficult for the Greeks to penetrate the secret of
the divan; yet the Greeks are persuaded, that a resistance
so obstinate and surprising, had fatigued the perseverance
of Mahomet. He began to meditate a retreat; and the siege
would have been speedily raised, if the ambition and jealousy of the second vizier had not opposed the perfidious
advice of Calil Bashaw, who still maintained a secret correspondence with the Byzantine court. The reduction of the
city appeared to be hopeless, unless a double attack could
be made from the harbor as well as from the land; but the
harbor was inaccessible: an impenetrable chain was now defended by eight large ships, more than twenty of a smaller
size, with several galleys and sloops; and, instead of forcing
this barrier, the Turks might apprehend a naval sally, and a
second encounter in the open sea. In this perplexity, the genius of Mahomet conceived and executed a plan of a bold
and marvellous cast, of transporting by land his lighter vessels and military stores from the Bosphorus into the higher
part of the harbor. The distance is about ten886 miles; the
ground is uneven, and was overspread with thickets; and,
as the road must be opened behind the suburb of Galata,
their free passage or total destruction must depend on the
option of the Genoese. But these selfish merchants were ambitious of the favor of being the last devoured; and the deficiency of art was supplied by the strength of obedient myr885 Ducas, who confesses himself ill informed of the affairs of Hungary assigns a motive of superstition, a fatal belief that Constantinople would be the
term of the Turkish conquests See Phranza (l iii c 20) and Spondanus.
886 Six miles Von Hammer
–M?.
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PART III
iads. A level way was covered with a broad platform of
strong and solid planks; and to render them more slippery
and smooth, they were anointed with the fat of sheep and
oxen. Fourscore light galleys and brigantines, of fifty and
thirty oars, were disembarked on the Bosphorus shore; arranged successively on rollers; and drawn forwards by the
power of men and pulleys. Two guides or pilots were stationed at the helm, and the prow, of each vessel: the sails
were unfurled to the winds; and the labor was cheered by
song and acclamation. In the course of a single night, this
Turkish fleet painfully climbed the hill, steered over the plain,
and was launched from the declivity into the shallow waters
of the harbor, far above the molestation of the deeper vessels of the Greeks. The real importance of this operation was
magnified by the consternation and confidence which it inspired: but the notorious, unquestionable fact was displayed
before the eyes, and is recorded by the pens, of the two nations.887 A similar stratagem had been repeatedly practised
by the ancients;888 the Ottoman galleys (I must again repeat)
should be considered as large boats; and, if we compare the
magnitude and the distance, the obstacles and the means, the
boasted miracle889 has perhaps been equalled by the industry of our own times.890 As soon as Mahomet had occupied
the upper harbor with a fleet and army, he constructed, in
887 The unanimous testimony of the four Greeks is confirmed by Cantemir (p
96) from the Turkish annals; but I could wish to contract the distance of ten *
miles, and to prolong the term of one night (Six miles Von Hammer) –M.
888 Phranza relates two examples of a similar transportation over the six miles
of the Isthmus of Corinth; the one fabulous, of Augustus after the battle of
Actium; the other true, of Nicetas, a Greek general in the xth century To these
he might have added a bold enterprise of Hannibal, to introduce his vessels
into the harbor of Tarentum, (Polybius, l viii p 749, edit Gronov (Von Hammer
gives a longer list of such transportations, p 533 Dion Cassius distinctly relates
the occurrence treated as fabulous by Gibbon–M.
889 A Greek of Candia, who had served the Venetians in a similar undertaking,
(Spond AD 1438, No 37,) might possibly be the adviser and agent of Mahomet.
890 I particularly allude to our own embarkations on the lakes of Canada in
the years 1776 and 1777, so great in the labor, so fruitless in the event.
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the narrowest part, a bridge, or rather mole, of fifty cubits in
breadth, and one hundred in length: it was formed of casks
and hogsheads; joined with rafters, linked with iron, and covered with a solid floor. On this floating battery he planted one
of his largest cannon, while the fourscore galleys, with troops
and scaling ladders, approached the most accessible side,
which had formerly been stormed by the Latin conquerors.
The indolence of the Christians has been accused for not destroying these unfinished works;891 but their fire, by a superior fire, was controlled and silenced; nor were they wanting in a nocturnal attempt to burn the vessels as well as the
bridge of the sultan. His vigilance prevented their approach;
their foremost galiots were sunk or taken; forty youths, the
bravest of Italy and Greece, were inhumanly massacred at
his command; nor could the emperor’s grief be assuaged by
the just though cruel retaliation, of exposing from the walls
the heads of two hundred and sixty Mussulman captives. After a siege of forty days, the fate of Constantinople could no
longer be averted. The diminutive garrison was exhausted by
a double attack: the fortifications, which had stood for ages
against hostile violence, were dismantled on all sides by the
Ottoman cannon: many breaches were opened; and near the
gate of St. Romanus, four towers had been levelled with the
ground. For the payment of his feeble and mutinous troops,
Constantine was compelled to despoil the churches with the
promise of a fourfold restitution; and his sacrilege offered a
new reproach to the enemies of the union. A spirit of discord
impaired the remnant of the Christian strength; the Genoese
and Venetian auxiliaries asserted the preeminence of their respective service; and Justiniani and the great duke, whose
ambition was not extinguished by the common danger, accused each other of treachery and cowardice.
During the siege of Constantinople, the words of peace
and capitulation had been sometimes pronounced; and
891 They were betrayed, according to some accounts, by the Genoese of Galata
Von Hammer, p 536–M.
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several embassies had passed between the camp and the
city.@@Chalcondyles and Ducas differ in the time and circumstances of the negotiation; and as it was neither glorious nor salutary, the faithful Phranza spares his prince even
the thought of a surrender.892 These wings (Chalcondyles, l
viii p 208) are no more than an Oriental figure: but in the
tragedy of Irene, Mahomet’s passion soars above sense and
reason:–893 should not escape from his inexorable justice. The
greatest part of his bashaws and Janizaries were the offspring
of Christian parents: but the glories of the Turkish name
were perpetuated by successive adoption; and in the gradual
change of individuals, the spirit of a legion, a regiment, or
an oda, is kept alive by imitation and discipline. In this holy
warfare, the Moslems were exhorted to purify their minds
with prayer, their bodies with seven ablutions; and to abstain from food till the close of the ensuing day. A crowd of
892 The Greek emperor was humbled by adversity; and would have yielded
to any terms compatible with religion and royalty. The Turkish sultan was desirous of sparing the blood of his soldiers; still more desirous of securing for
his own use the Byzantine treasures: and he accomplished a sacred duty in
presenting to the Gabours the choice of circumcision, of tribute, or of death.
The avarice of Mahomet might have been satisfied with an annual sum of one
hundred thousand ducats; but his ambition grasped the capital of the East: to
the prince he offered a rich equivalent, to the people a free toleration, or a safe
departure: but after some fruitless treaty, he declared his resolution of finding either a throne, or a grave, under the walls of Constantinople. A sense
of honor, and the fear of universal reproach, forbade Palæologus to resign the
city into the hands of the Ottomans; and he determined to abide the last extremities of war. Several days were employed by the sultan in the preparations
of the assault; and a respite was granted by his favorite science of astrology,
which had fixed on the twenty-ninth of May, as the fortunate and fatal hour.
On the evening of the twenty-seventh, he issued his final orders; assembled in
his presence the military chiefs, and dispersed his heralds through the camp
to proclaim the duty, and the motives, of the perilous enterprise. Fear is the
first principle of a despotic government; and his menaces were expressed in
the Oriental style, that the fugitives and deserters, had they the wings of a bird,
893 Should the fierce North, upon his frozen wings
Bear him aloft above the wondering clouds,
And seat him in the Pleiads’ golden chariot–
Then should my fury drag him down to tortures.
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dervises visited the tents, to instil the desire of martyrdom,
and the assurance of spending an immortal youth amidst the
rivers and gardens of paradise, and in the embraces of the
black-eyed virgins. Yet Mahomet principally trusted to the
efficacy of temporal and visible rewards. A double pay was
promised to the victorious troops: “The city and the buildings,” said Mahomet, “are mine; but I resign to your valor the
captives and the spoil, the treasures of gold and beauty; be
rich and be happy. Many are the provinces of my empire: the
intrepid soldier who first ascends the walls of Constantinople shall be rewarded with the government of the fairest and
most wealthy; and my gratitude shall accumulate his honors
and fortunes above the measure of his own hopes.” Such various and potent motives diffused among the Turks a general
ardor, regardless of life and impatient for action: the camp
reechoed with the Moslem shouts of “God is God: there is
but one God, and Mahomet is the apostle of God;”894 and the
sea and land, from Galata to the seven towers, were illuminated by the blaze of their nocturnal fires.895
Besides the extravagance of the rant, I must observe, 1.
That the operation of the winds must be confined to the lower
region of the air. 2. That the name, etymology, and fable
of the Pleiads are purely Greek, (Scholiast ad Homer, S. 686.
Eudocia in Ioniâ, p. 399. Apollodor. l. iii. c. 10. Heyne, p.
229, Not. 682,) and had no affinity with the astronomy of the
East, (Hyde ad Ulugbeg, Tabul. in Syntagma Dissert. tom.
i. p. 40, 42. Goguet, Origine des Arts, &c., tom. vi. p. 73–
78. Gebelin, Hist. du Calendrier, p. 73,) which Mahomet had
studied. 3. The golden chariot does not exist either in science or fiction; but I much fear Dr. Johnson has confounded
the Pleiads with the great bear or wagon, the zodiac with a
894 Phranza quarrels with these Moslem acclamations, not for the name of
God, but for that of the prophet: the pious zeal of Voltaire is excessive, and
even ridiculous.
895 The picture is heightened by the addition of the wailing cries of Kyris,
which were heard from the dark interior of the city Von Hammer p 539–M.
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northern constellation:–
’‘Αρκ-ον χ΄ ην και αμαξαν επικλησιν καλεουειν. Ιλ. Σ. 487.
Far different was the state of the Christians; who, with loud
and impotent complaints, deplored the guilt, or the punishment, of their sins. The celestial image of the Virgin had been
exposed in solemn procession; but their divine patroness was
deaf to their entreaties: they accused the obstinacy of the emperor for refusing a timely surrender; anticipated the horrors
of their fate; and sighed for the repose and security of Turkish servitude. The noblest of the Greeks, and the bravest of
the allies, were summoned to the palace, to prepare them, on
the evening of the twenty-eighth, for the duties and dangers
of the general assault. The last speech of Palæologus was the
funeral oration of the Roman empire:896 he promised, he conjured, and he vainly attempted to infuse the hope which was
extinguished in his own mind. In this world all was comfortless and gloomy; and neither the gospel nor the church
have proposed any conspicuous recompense to the heroes
who fall in the service of their country. But the example of
their prince, and the confinement of a siege, had armed these
warriors with the courage of despair, and the pathetic scene
is described by the feelings of the historian Phranza, who was
himself present at this mournful assembly. They wept, they
embraced; regardless of their families and fortunes, they devoted their lives; and each commander, departing to his station, maintained all night a vigilant and anxious watch on
the rampart. The emperor, and some faithful companions,
entered the dome of St. Sophia, which in a few hours was
to be converted into a mosque; and devoutly received, with
tears and prayers, the sacrament of the holy communion. He
reposed some moments in the palace, which resounded with
cries and lamentations; solicited the pardon of all whom he
896 I am afraid that this discourse was composed by Phranza himself; and it
smells so grossly of the sermon and the convent, that I almost doubt whether
it was pronounced by Constantine Leonardus assigns him another speech, in
which he addresses himself more respectfully to the Latin auxiliaries.
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might have injured;897 and mounted on horseback to visit the
guards, and explore the motions of the enemy. The distress
and fall of the last Constantine are more glorious than the
long prosperity of the Byzantine Cæsars.898
In the confusion of darkness, an assailant may sometimes
succeed; out in this great and general attack, the military
judgment and astrological knowledge of Mahomet advised
him to expect the morning, the memorable twenty-ninth of
May, in the fourteen hundred and fifty-third year of the
Christian æra. The preceding night had been strenuously
employed: the troops, the cannons, and the fascines, were
advanced to the edge of the ditch, which in many parts presented a smooth and level passage to the breach; and his
fourscore galleys almost touched, with the prows and their
scaling-ladders, the less defensible walls of the harbor. Under pain of death, silence was enjoined: but the physical laws
of motion and sound are not obedient to discipline or fear;
each individual might suppress his voice and measure his
footsteps; but the march and labor of thousands must inevitably produce a strange confusion of dissonant clamors,
which reached the ears of the watchmen of the towers. At
daybreak, without the customary signal of the morning gun,
the Turks assaulted the city by sea and land; and the similitude of a twined or twisted thread has been applied to the
closeness and continuity of their line of attack.899 The foremost ranks consisted of the refuse of the host, a voluntary
crowd who fought without order or command; of the feeble897 This abasement, which devotion has sometimes extorted from dying
princes, is an improvement of the gospel doctrine of the forgiveness of injuries:
it is more easy to forgive 490 times, than once to ask pardon of an inferior.
898 Compare the very curious Armenian elegy on the fall of Constantinople,
translated by M Boré, in the Journal Asiatique for March, 1835; and by M Brosset, in the new edition of Le Beau, (tom xxi p 308) The author thus ends his
poem: “I, Abraham, loaded with sins, have composed this elegy with the most
lively sorrow; for I have seen Constantinople in the days of its glory”–M.
899 Besides the 10,000 guards, and the sailors and the marines, Ducas numbers
in this general assault 250,000 Turks, both horse and foot.
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ness of age or childhood, of peasants and vagrants, and of all
who had joined the camp in the blind hope of plunder and
martyrdom. The common impulse drove them onwards to
the wall; the most audacious to climb were instantly precipitated; and not a dart, not a bullet, of the Christians, was idly
wasted on the accumulated throng. But their strength and
ammunition were exhausted in this laborious defence: the
ditch was filled with the bodies of the slain; they supported
the footsteps of their companions; and of this devoted vanguard the death was more serviceable than the life. Under
their respective bashaws and sanjaks, the troops of Anatolia and Romania were successively led to the charge: their
progress was various and doubtful; but, after a conflict of
two hours, the Greeks still maintained, and improved their
advantage; and the voice of the emperor was heard, encouraging his soldiers to achieve, by a last effort, the deliverance
of their country. In that fatal moment, the Janizaries arose,
fresh, vigorous, and invincible. The sultan himself on horseback, with an iron mace in his hand, was the spectator and
judge of their valor: he was surrounded by ten thousand of
his domestic troops, whom he reserved for the decisive occasion; and the tide of battle was directed and impelled by
his voice and eye. His numerous ministers of justice were
posted behind the line, to urge, to restrain, and to punish;
and if danger was in the front, shame and inevitable death
were in the rear, of the fugitives. The cries of fear and of pain
were drowned in the martial music of drums, trumpets, and
attaballs; and experience has proved, that the mechanical operation of sounds, by quickening the circulation of the blood
and spirits, will act on the human machine more forcibly than
the eloquence of reason and honor. From the lines, the galleys, and the bridge, the Ottoman artillery thundered on all
sides; and the camp and city, the Greeks and the Turks, were
involved in a cloud of smoke which could only be dispelled
by the final deliverance or destruction of the Roman empire.
The single combats of the heroes of history or fable amuse
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our fancy and engage our affections: the skilful evolutions of
war may inform the mind, and improve a necessary, though
pernicious, science. But in the uniform and odious pictures
of a general assault, all is blood, and horror, and confusion
nor shall I strive, at the distance of three centuries, and a
thousand miles, to delineate a scene of which there could be
no spectators, and of which the actors themselves were incapable of forming any just or adequate idea.
The immediate loss of Constantinople may be ascribed to
the bullet, or arrow, which pierced the gauntlet of John Justiniani. The sight of his blood, and the exquisite pain, appalled the courage of the chief, whose arms and counsels
were the firmest rampart of the city. As he withdrew from
his station in quest of a surgeon, his flight was perceived and
stopped by the indefatigable emperor. “Your wound,” exclaimed Palæologus, “is slight; the danger is pressing: your
presence is necessary; and whither will you retire?”–“I will
retire,” said the trembling Genoese, “by the same road which
God has opened to the Turks;” and at these words he hastily
passed through one of the breaches of the inner wall.@@By
this pusillanimous act he stained the honors of a military
life; and the few days which he survived in Galata, or the
Isle of Chios, were embittered by his own and the public reproach.900 M Brosset has given some extracts from the Georgian account of the siege of Constantinople, in which Justiniani’s wound in the left foot is represented as more serious
With charitable ambiguity the chronicler adds that his soldiers carried him away with them in their vessel–M.
His example was imitated by the greatest part of the Latin
auxiliaries, and the defence began to slacken when the attack
900 In the severe censure of the flight of Justiniani, Phranza expresses his own
feelings and those of the public For some private reasons, he is treated with
more lenity and respect by Ducas; but the words of Leonardus Chiensis express his strong and recent indignation, gloriæ salutis suique oblitus In the
whole series of their Eastern policy, his countrymen, the Genoese, were always
suspected, and often guilty.
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PART III
was pressed with redoubled vigor. The number of the Ottomans was fifty, perhaps a hundred, times superior to that of
the Christians; the double walls were reduced by the cannon
to a heap of ruins: in a circuit of several miles, some places
must be found more easy of access, or more feebly guarded;
and if the besiegers could penetrate in a single point, the
whole city was irrecoverably lost. The first who deserved the
sultan’s reward was Hassan the Janizary, of gigantic stature
and strength. With his cimeter in one hand and his buckler in
the other, he ascended the outward fortification: of the thirty
Janizaries, who were emulous of his valor, eighteen perished
in the bold adventure. Hassan and his twelve companions
had reached the summit: the giant was precipitated from the
rampart: he rose on one knee, and was again oppressed by a
shower of darts and stones. But his success had proved that
the achievement was possible: the walls and towers were instantly covered with a swarm of Turks; and the Greeks, now
driven from the vantage ground, were overwhelmed by increasing multitudes. Amidst these multitudes, the emperor,
Ducas kills him with two blows of Turkish soldiers; Chalcondyles wounds him in the shoulder, and then tramples him
in the gate The grief of Phranza, carrying him among the enemy, escapes from the precise image of his death; but we may,
without flattery, apply these noble lines of Dryden:–As to Sebastian, let them search the field;
And where they find a mountain of the slain,
Send one to climb, and looking down beneath,
There they will find him at his manly length,
With his face up to heaven, in that red monument
Which his good sword had digged.
Who accomplished all the duties of a general and a soldier,
was long seen and finally lost. The nobles, who fought round
his person, sustained, till their last breath, the honorable
names of Palæologus and Cantacuzene: his mournful exclamation was heard, “Cannot there be found a Christian to cut
off my head?”–Spondanus, (AD 1453, No 10,) who has hopes
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of his salvation, wishes to absolve this demand from the guilt
of suicide and his last fear was that of falling alive into the
hands of the infidels. Leonardus Chiensis very properly observes, that the Turks, had they known the emperor, would
have labored to save and secure a captive so acceptable to the
sultan.901 Cantemir, p 96 The Christian ships in the mouth of
the harbor had flanked and retarded this naval attack.902
The tidings of misfortune fly with a rapid wing; yet such
was the extent of Constantinople, that the more distant quarters might prolong, some moments, the happy ignorance of
their ruin.903 But in the general consternation, in the feelings
of selfish or social anxiety, in the tumult and thunder of the
assault, a sleepless night and morning.904 must have elapsed;
901 The prudent despair of Constantine cast away the purple: amidst the tumult he fell by an unknown hand, and his body was buried under a mountain
of the slain. After his death, resistance and order were no more: the Greeks
fled towards the city; and many were pressed and stifled in the narrow pass of
the gate of St. Romanus. The victorious Turks rushed through the breaches of
the inner wall; and as they advanced into the streets, they were soon joined by
their brethren, who had forced the gate Phenar on the side of the harbor.
902 In the first heat of the pursuit, about two thousand Christians were put to
the sword; but avarice soon prevailed over cruelty; and the victors acknowledged, that they should immediately have given quarter if the valor of the emperor and his chosen bands had not prepared them for a similar opposition
in every part of the capital. It was thus, after a siege of fifty-three days, that
Constantinople, which had defied the power of Chosroes, the Chagan, and the
caliphs, was irretrievably subdued by the arms of Mahomet the Second. Her
empire only had been subverted by the Latins: her religion was trampled in the
dust by the Moslem conquerors. Chalcondyles most absurdly supposes, that
Constantinople was sacked by the Asiatics in revenge for the ancient calamities
of Troy; and the grammarians of the xvth century are happy to melt down the
uncouth appellation of Turks into the more classical name of Teucri.
903 When Cyrus suppressed Babylon during the celebration of a festival, so
vast was the city, and so careless were the inhabitants, that much time elapsed
before the distant quarters knew that they were captives Herodotus, (l i c 191,)
and Usher, (Annal p 78,) who has quoted from the prophet Jeremiah a passage
of similar import.
904 This refers to an expression in Ducas, who, to heighten the effect of his
description, speaks of the “sweet morning sleep resting on the eyes of youths
and maidens,” p 288 Edit Bekker–M.
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nor can I believe that many Grecian ladies were awakened by
the Janizaries from a sound and tranquil slumber. On the assurance of the public calamity, the houses and convents were
instantly deserted; and the trembling inhabitants flocked together in the streets, like a herd of timid animals, as if accumulated weakness could be productive of strength, or in
the vain hope, that amid the crowd each individual might be
safe and invisible. From every part of the capital, they flowed
into the church of St. Sophia: in the space of an hour, the
sanctuary, the choir, the nave, the upper and lower galleries,
were filled with the multitudes of fathers and husbands, of
women and children, of priests, monks, and religious virgins: the doors were barred on the inside, and they sought
protection from the sacred dome, which they had so lately
abhorred as a profane and polluted edifice. Their confidence
was founded on the prophecy of an enthusiast or impostor;
that one day the Turks would enter Constantinople, and pursue the Romans as far as the column of Constantine in the
square before St. Sophia: but that this would be the term of
their calamities: that an angel would descend from heaven,
with a sword in his hand, and would deliver the empire, with
that celestial weapon, to a poor man seated at the foot of the
column. “Take this sword,” would he say, “and avenge the
people of the Lord.” At these animating words, the Turks
would instantly fly, and the victorious Romans would drive
them from the West, and from all Anatolia as far as the frontiers of Persia. It is on this occasion that Ducas, with some
fancy and much truth, upbraids the discord and obstinacy of
the Greeks. “Had that angel appeared,” exclaims the historian, “had he offered to exterminate your foes if you would
consent to the union of the church, even event then, in that
fatal moment, you would have rejected your safety, or have
deceived your God.”905
905 This lively description is extracted from Ducas, (c 39,) who two years afterwards was sent ambassador from the prince of Lesbos to the sultan, (c 44)
Till Lesbos was subdued in 1463, (Phranza, l iii c 27,) that island must have
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Part IV
they expected the descent of the tardy angel, the
W
doors were broken with axes; and as the Turks encountered no resistance, their bloodless hands were employed
HILE
in selecting and securing the multitude of their prisoners.
Youth, beauty, and the appearance of wealth, attracted their
choice; and the right of property was decided among themselves by a prior seizure, by personal strength, and by the
authority of command. In the space of an hour, the male
captives were bound with cords, the females with their veils
and girdles. The senators were linked with their slaves; the
prelates, with the porters of the church; and young men of
the plebeian class, with noble maids, whose faces had been
invisible to the sun and their nearest kindred. In this common captivity, the ranks of society were confounded; the ties
of nature were cut asunder; and the inexorable soldier was
careless of the father’s groans, the tears of the mother, and
the lamentations of the children. The loudest in their wailings were the nuns, who were torn from the altar with naked
bosoms, outstretched hands, and dishevelled hair; and we
should piously believe that few could be tempted to prefer
the vigils of the harem to those of the monastery. Of these
unfortunate Greeks, of these domestic animals, whole strings
were rudely driven through the streets; and as the conquerors
were eager to return for more prey, their trembling pace was
quickened with menaces and blows. At the same hour, a similar rapine was exercised in all the churches and monasteries,
in all the palaces and habitations, of the capital; nor could any
place, however sacred or sequestered, protect the persons or
the property of the Greeks. Above sixty thousand of this devoted people were transported from the city to the camp and
fleet; exchanged or sold according to the caprice or interest
of their masters, and dispersed in remote servitude through
been full of the fugitives of Constantinople, who delighted to repeat, perhaps
to adorn, the tale of their misery.
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the provinces of the Ottoman empire. Among these we may
notice some remarkable characters. The historian Phranza,
first chamberlain and principal secretary, was involved with
his family in the common lot. After suffering four months
the hardships of slavery, he recovered his freedom: in the ensuing winter he ventured to Adrianople, and ransomed his
wife from the mir bashi, or master of the horse; but his two
children, in the flower of youth and beauty, had been seized
for the use of Mahomet himself. The daughter of Phranza
died in the seraglio, perhaps a virgin: his son, in the fifteenth
year of his age, preferred death to infamy, and was stabbed by
the hand of the royal lover.906 A deed thus inhuman cannot
surely be expiated by the taste and liberality with which he
released a Grecian matron and her two daughters, on receiving a Latin doe From ode from Philelphus, who had chosen a
wife in that noble family.907 The pride or cruelty of Mahomet
would have been most sensibly gratified by the capture of
a Roman legate; but the dexterity of Cardinal Isidore eluded
the search, and he escaped from Galata in a plebeian habit.908
The chain and entrance of the outward harbor was still occupied by the Italian ships of merchandise and war. They had
signalized their valor in the siege: they embraced the mo906 See Phranza, l iii c 20, 21 His expressions are positive: Ameras suâ manû
jugulavit volebat enim eo turpiter et nefarie abuti Me miserum et infelicem! Yet
he could only learn from report the bloody or impure scenes that were acted in
the dark recesses of the seraglio.
907 See Tiraboschi (tom vi P i p 290) and Lancelot, (Mém de l’Académie des
Inscriptions, tom x p 718) I should be curious to learn how he could praise the
public enemy, whom he so often reviles as the most corrupt and inhuman of
tyrants.
908 The commentaries of Pius II suppose that he craftily placed his cardinal’s
hat on the head of a corpse which was cut off and exposed in triumph, while
the legate himself was bought and delivered as a captive of no value The great
Belgic Chronicle adorns his escape with new adventures, which he suppressed
(says Spondanus, AD 1453, No 15) in his own letters, lest he should lose the
merit and reward of suffering for Christ * Note: He was sold as a slave in
Galata, according to Von Hammer, p 175 See the somewhat vague and declamatory letter of Cardinal Isidore, in the appendix to Clarke’s Travels, vol ii p
653–M.
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PART IV
ment of retreat, while the Turkish mariners were dissipated
in the pillage of the city. When they hoisted sail, the beach
was covered with a suppliant and lamentable crowd; but the
means of transportation were scanty: the Venetians and Genoese selected their countrymen; and, notwithstanding the
fairest promises of the sultan, the inhabitants of Galata evacuated their houses, and embarked with their most precious
effects.
In the fall and the sack of great cities, an historian is condemned to repeat the tale of uniform calamity: the same
effects must be produced by the same passions; and when
those passions may be indulged without control, small, alas!
is the difference between civilized and savage man. Amidst
the vague exclamations of bigotry and hatred, the Turks are
not accused of a wanton or immoderate effusion of Christian
blood: but according to their maxims, (the maxims of antiquity,) the lives of the vanquished were forfeited; and the legitimate reward of the conqueror was derived from the service,
the sale, or the ransom, of his captives of both sexes.909 The
wealth of Constantinople had been granted by the sultan to
his victorious troops; and the rapine of an hour is more productive than the industry of years. But as no regular division
was attempted of the spoil, the respective shares were not
determined by merit; and the rewards of valor were stolen
away by the followers of the camp, who had declined the toil
and danger of the battle. The narrative of their depredations
could not afford either amusement or instruction: the total
amount, in the last poverty of the empire, has been valued
at four millions of ducats;910 and of this sum a small part
909 Busbequius expatiates with pleasure and applause on the rights of war,
and the use of slavery, among the ancients and the Turks, (de Legat Turcicâ,
epist iii p 161).
910 This sum is specified in a marginal note of Leunclavius, (Chalcondyles, l
viii p 211,) but in the distribution to Venice, Genoa, Florence, and Ancona, of
50, 20, and 15,000 ducats, I suspect that a figure has been dropped Even with
the restitution, the foreign property would scarcely exceed one fourth.
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was the property of the Venetians, the Genoese, the Florentines, and the merchants of Ancona. Of these foreigners, the
stock was improved in quick and perpetual circulation: but
the riches of the Greeks were displayed in the idle ostentation of palaces and wardrobes, or deeply buried in treasures
of ingots and old coin, lest it should be demanded at their
hands for the defence of their country. The profanation and
plunder of the monasteries and churches excited the most
tragic complaints. The dome of St. Sophia itself, the earthly
heaven, the second firmament, the vehicle of the cherubim,
the throne of the glory of God,911 was despoiled of the oblation of ages; and the gold and silver, the pearls and jewels,
the vases and sacerdotal ornaments, were most wickedly converted to the service of mankind. After the divine images had
been stripped of all that could be valuable to a profane eye,
the canvas, or the wood, was torn, or broken, or burnt, or
trod under foot, or applied, in the stables or the kitchen, to
the vilest uses. The example of sacrilege was imitated, however, from the Latin conquerors of Constantinople; and the
treatment which Christ, the Virgin, and the saints, had sustained from the guilty Catholic, might be inflicted by the zealous Mussulman on the monuments of idolatry. Perhaps, instead of joining the public clamor, a philosopher will observe,
that in the decline of the arts the workmanship could not be
more valuable than the work, and that a fresh supply of visions and miracles would speedily be renewed by the craft
of the priests and the credulity of the people. He will more
seriously deplore the loss of the Byzantine libraries, which
were destroyed or scattered in the general confusion: one
hundred and twenty thousand manuscripts are said to have
disappeared;912 ten volumes might be purchased for a single ducat; and the same ignominious price, too high perhaps
for a shelf of theology, included the whole works of Aristotle
911 See
the enthusiastic praises and lamentations of Phranza, (l iii c 17).
Ducas, (c 43,) and an epistle, July 15th, 1453, from Laurus Quirinus to
Pope Nicholas V, (Hody de Græcis, p 192, from a MS in the Cotton library).
912 See
479
CHAPTER LXVIII
PART IV
and Homer, the noblest productions of the science and literature of ancient Greece. We may reflect with pleasure that
an inestimable portion of our classic treasures was safely deposited in Italy; and that the mechanics of a German town
had invented an art which derides the havoc of time and barbarism.
From the first hour913 of the memorable twenty-ninth of
May, disorder and rapine prevailed in Constantinople, till the
eighth hour of the same day; when the sultan himself passed
in triumph through the gate of St. Romanus. He was attended by his viziers, bashaws, and guards, each of whom
(says a Byzantine historian) was robust as Hercules, dexterous as Apollo, and equal in battle to any ten of t